V For Vectors
by The Lamentation
Summary: When Luffy eats the Devil Fruit in Makino's Bar, he does not end up with the ability to stretch his body like rubber. Instead, he gains the power to calculate and manipulate vectors. Who can say just how this relatively small change will affect his dream, drive, and destiny? GEN. Chapter 3 edited 10/18/2018
1. East Blue: Romance Dawn

V For Vectors

 **Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or To Aru Majutsu No Index. Nothing you recognize from any other works of fiction belong to me in any way, shape, or form. I am not profiting off of this story in any way and write for fun only.**

 **A/N: No knowledge of To Aru Majutsu No Index is required for this story. The only element being taken from it is Accelerator's vector control, which I am translating into Devil Fruit format anyways. Heavily inspired by Acceleration by alanw6616. Also Nine Minutes by serpentguy. Fantastic stories, I highly recommend both of them.**

* * *

 **East Blue: Romance Dawn**

In a small bar, located in a small village on a small island in the East Blue, a rowdy party was taking place. Sake flowed like water, laughter filled the air, and quickly diminishing plates of food made erratic loops around the room from man to man. Suddenly, the sound of revelry was split by the high pitched shout of a child.

"Shanks! Let me come with you out to sea so I can become a real pirate!" Luffy cried out at the top of his lungs, prompting laughter from the surrounding men at the idea of a 7 year old pirate.

"No way, you're still so young and weak," Shanks drawled back with a lazy grin. "Maybe 10 years from now you can ask again."

As the laughter only grew louder and more raucous, Luffy charged Shanks with a face red enough from embarrassment to nearly match the infamous pirate captain's hair. All he needed to do was beat him up, show everybody how strong he was, and then they would let him join in on their adventures! Maybe they would even make him captain aft-

The optimistic line of thought was swiftly extinguished by the presence of Shanks' foot planting itself in Luffy's face and knocking the hopeful pirate down onto his rear with a loud thud. Laughter exploded around the room once more as the young boy stood up and glared all around with watery eyes while his dream was mocked for what seemed to be the hundredth time since he had decided on becoming the Pirate King.

When Luffy spoke again, his voice wobbled with pent up emotion at being mocked by his heroes. "One day you'll all regret laughing at me! I'm gonna be the strongest guy in the entire world, and then you'll regret not inviting me to join your crew right now!"

"Dahahahaha! I'll be waiting for that day to fight you like an equal then, Luffy!" Shanks burst out laughing once more at the passionate claim.

Suddenly, the door crashed open and tension cut through the previously jovial mood like a knife through hot butter as the current inhabitants of the building turned to look at the new arrivals. The group of men looked rather rugged as they swaggered up towards the bar behind a thin man with an angular face, wicked smirk, and goatee who appeared to be the leader of the bunch.

"So these are the pirates everybody is talking about, huh?" He spat on the ground without ever losing the sickening grin. "They look pretty stupid to me!" Sitting down at the bar while the surrounding men cackled like hyenas at the rather pathetic insult, the man slammed a hand down onto the wooden surface with a shout. "This doesn't have to end with trouble, you know? Just give us 10 barrels of your best sake and we can all be on our way."

"I'm really sorry, but we're all out of sake right now," Makino responded with a nervous glance over in the direction of Shanks and his crew.

Following the look with a groan, the man turned towards the gathered pirates with a frustrated glare. "All of it went to these useless pirates, huh?"

"Ah, I'm so sorry for that," Shanks smiled in a friendly manner, holding the last bottle of wine out in the newcomer's direction. "This bottle is brand new though, have it as an apology for us being so greedy."

Swiping out quickly with his hand, the scarred bandit shattered the bottle all over Shanks with a snarl at the peace-making attempt. "Don't waste my time you shitty pirate," he growled, whipping out a wanted poster from a pocket in his clothes. "Do you see this number? I'm Higuma, a wanted bandit worth 8,000,000 berries! I've killed 56 people! One shitty bottle isn't nearly good enough for me!"

"Well now the floor is all wet and there's a mess. Sorry about that Makino." Shanks crouched down, carefully picking up the pieces of glass scattered across the floor and ignoring the fuming man above him. "Oi, Makino, do you have anything to clean all this stuff up with?"

"You don't need to do any of that Shanks!" Makino blushed in response as she reached down underneath the back of the bar to grab some cleaning supplies. "I can get all of it, don't worry."

Watching on from the sidelines, only shock at how his idol was acting stopped Luffy from shouting something insulting at the stupid man with the pinched face who dared to come in here and ruin everything. Why wasn't Shanks saying anything or kicking this guy's butt? Was it just an act so that Shanks could get him with a sneak attack once his guard was down? Deciding to wait and see what the master plan would be, Luffy continued to watch without saying anything.

"Since you seem to like cleaning so much, you'll enjoy this even more!" the now introduced Higuma yelled as he knocked everything off of the top of the bar onto the floor with a single sword swipe. The crashing sound of breaking plates and bottles didn't quite drown out Makino's horrified gasp, and Higuma just smirked as the noise died down and several moments passed without a word or movement from Shanks. "No point wasting anymore time here if you don't have any sake, let's go boys! Later, cowards!" he directed the final comment at the motionless pirates before stalking out the now broken door with his cronies right behind.

Silence reigned over the room for a full 10 seconds before Shanks finally broke it.

"Dahahahaha!"

"They really got you captain, that's funny!"

"How shameful!"

" _Why are you all_ _laughing_?" Luffy screamed, unable to take the laughter a single moment longer. Standing up on his stool to point around at all the members of Shanks' crew in the bar, he continued. "Why didn't you fight back as they trashed this place? You just let them mess up Makino's bar for no reason because you're scared? How can you call yourself a man if you won't fight back?"

"Ah, relax won't you, Luffy? Something like this… it's just some spilled sake. It's nothing to get angry over, you see?" Shanks grinned as he tried to calm down the young boy to no avail. "Being strong isn't just about beating people up, you need to know when to fight and when it's not worth your time. Higuma is just some small time bandit out here in the middle of nowhere, he could never defeat me in a thousand years!"

Luffy fell quiet as Shanks' words sunk in, turning them over and over in his head while the pirates focused on helping Makino clean up the mess at the bar and door.

Then he saw it.

Sitting innocuously in a tiny open treasure chest on the bar was a strange looking fruit. Bright purple, nearly as big as his head, and covered in unnatural looking swirls, the rest of the noise in the bar slowly faded away to a dull background buzz as all of Luffy's attention zeroed in on the fruit. Something about this was… wrong. Wasn't everything knocked off the bar by Higuma? Where was that faint feeling of power coming from? Could it possibly be this weird purple fruit? Luffy was so lost in thought that he didn't even realize he was holding the new object of his obsession in his hands and leaning in to take a bite until it was too late.

Ashes, dust, decay, rot.

The trance Luffy had previously been trapped in was broken and noise returned to the world with a bang as he hacked and wheezed so hard it felt like he would throw up. How was it possible for anything to taste so _bad_? This… monstrosity was an insult to the good name of food everywhere? Forcing his watery eyes open again and spitting to the side in an attempt to remove the vile taste from his mouth, Luffy distantly realized Shanks was yelling at him.

"Luffy, did you eat the thing inside of this box?" Shanks kept switching his horrified gaze between the now empty treasure chest and the small boy on the stool in front of it. "Spit it out, spit it all out _now_!"

"Wh-what was that thing?" Luffy asked in a small voice, cowering before the pirate captain as the reality of his situation sunk in. He had never seen the normally mild-mannered man so panicked before. What if the fruit was poisonous or something?

"What you just ate is called a Devil Fruit! They give whoever eats them a random ability from the Sea Devil but at the cost of a curse! You'll never be able to swim again!" Shanks exclaimed with a frown, evidently realizing that it was too late for Luffy to try and spit it out. "We don't know what kind of fruit that was. Your power could be something crazy strong like causing earthquakes or becoming hard as steel, but it could also be something completely useless like changing your hairstyle or turning into a giraffe. We can't possibly know for sure. Do you feel any different?"

Screwing his eyes shut once again and turning his focus inwards, Luffy attempted to see if anything about him had changed. Imagination racing at the speed of light thinking about what kind of cool superpowers he would end up with, the boy eagerly tried mentally prodding the funny new feeling in his gut to provoke some kind of reaction that would shed some light on the mystery… and absolutely nothing happened.

"Why isn't it working?" Luffy whined at the red haired pirate captain. "I can feel this weird tingly difference in my stomach but it's not doing anything!"

"I don't know," Shanks mumbled, reaching out to poke at the boy's cheek to check for any kind of change to the skin. When no obvious power manifested itself there either, he continued. "You definitely ate the Devil Fruit and your ability to swim is now gone. I don't have any experience with the fruits myself, but from what I hear most of the powerful ones are usually very apparent once the change occurs. Maybe you just got the Useless-Useless Fruit! Dahahahaha!"

Veins throbbed in Luffy's forehead. "Shut up stupid Shanks, you're definitely wrong!" He shouted, but there was now a sinking feeling in his stomach. What if the pirate captain was right? Could he have just traded his ability to swim and be a good pirate for a Devil Fruit that did nothing? "I don't even care if I got the Useless-Useless Fruit, I'm still gonna become the strongest person in the entire world! Then I'll be able to protect everybody I care about and not be a big coward like you were just now! The whole world is gonna know my name!"

With that said, Luffy darted out the broken doors before anybody else in the small bar was able to stop him. Makino quickly made her way out from behind the bar and moved as if to go chase down the runaway boy until Shanks stopped her by lightly grabbing the back of her shirt.

"Ah, you need to just give him some time Makino," Shanks sighed with an unusually melancholy tone as he watched the small figure disappear off into the distance to presumably try and discover his Devil Fruit powers. "His dreams were just crushed, he doesn't know you can be a good pirate without being able to swim or fantastic powers yet. Give him some time to cool off first."

* * *

Stumbling back into to town a few days later, Luffy was a dejected mess. Despite spending the last 2 days doing nothing but throw himself into increasingly dangerous situations in a desperate attempt to prove that he had not actually eaten the Useless-Useless Fruit or something similarly stupid, he'd had no luck in awakening whatever it actually was. Getting chased by wild animals, punching trees and rocks until his knuckles bled and wrists ached, jumping from trees, exercising until he collapsed. Nothing worked. Tears welled up and threatened to spill as the reality of the situation began to sink in for the young boy, and Luffy's feet subconsciously followed the familiar path towards Makino's bar for some comfort and advice from Shanks.

Then the bar came into view and Luffy stopped with a gasp, shocked to his core.

The previously well kept and homey building was in shambles. Every window within view on the front of the building was shattered, frames cracked and falling apart. Slurs, curses, and profanity were vandalized in what appeared to be paint at various points on the walls. Numbly entering the building, Luffy was greeted by demolished furniture, shattered glass, and scars crisscrossing the wooden surface of the bar itself. Makino's pride and joy was shredded as though a natural disaster had hit it, and he stood motionless for a long while until a sharp sting suddenly struck through the haze Luffy had found himself in.

He had been gripping his hand into such a tight fist that the nails on each finger had broken through the skin.

Whirling around and storming back outside with a snarl, he quickly tracked down Mayor Woop Slap and cornered the obviously nervous man to prevent him from running away and avoiding the question.

" _What. Happened._ "

It wasn't a question so much as an earth shaking demand, and Woop Slap swallowed down the sudden lump in his throat before shakily trying to prevent what would inevitably happen once the furious boy learned the truth. "N-now calm down first, eh Luffy? We wouldn't want you to make a mistake that you end up regr-"

"What happened to Makino's bar? Tell me." Luffy once again demanded, unable to be shaken from the issue at hand.

"Ah, well t-those damn bandits came back last night while Makino was shutting down the bar…" Woop Slap winced hard as Luffy's anger managed to manifest itself in the form of a pressure filling the air. The humble mayor had never experienced anything quite like this before, much less from Luffy of all people, and stammered even more as he continued with the explanation. "Th-they demanded that she st-stay open for longer to serve them. When M-makino refused," he trailed off for a few moments before the glare from Luffy prompted him to resume speaking. "Well, they hurt Makino really badly. She's currently recovering at my home but…"

The rest of Woop Slap's words were wasted on empty air as Luffy tore off towards the man's home in a blur of motion.

Luffy had never felt rage like this before. He had been angry with Shanks for making fun of his dreams or frustrated with Makino treating him like a baby, but this sensation of liquid fire filling his veins and a haze of red coating his vision was brand new. Quickly reaching the house in question, flinging the door open, and darting upstairs, he froze at the sight of the bedridden woman.

Bandages were wrapped diagonally across Makino's head, covering her left eye and a portion of her face. Angry black and blue welts caressed the normally pale throat patterns unmistakably shaped like a hand, and a few peeked out from beneath the collar of her shirt implying more damage further down.

Gaze trailing downwards in horror at the state of his friend in such bad shape, Luffy's mind stumbled over a change in the usual silhouette that took nearly a minute to process.

Her left arm was missing.

Her left arm was _missing_.

All of a sudden, the previous liquid fire filling Luffy's veins was replaced by ice. An unnatural calm filled the child's mind. Beating the bandits up wouldn't be enough. It could _never_ be enough to repay them for something like this.

They would die.

They would die for daring to hurt Makino like this.

In hindsight, Luffy had no idea how long he remained standing there silently watching the unconscious woman he practically viewed as a surrogate mother struggle to take even breaths through her damaged ribs. It didn't really matter. He just stood there. Watching. Waiting. Hoping. Hating. Why hadn't he been here? If he hadn't been messing around in the forest for so long trying to make this stupid Devil Fruit do something, he could have…

What could he have done?

He was still little. No matter how much he denied it to everybody around him, Luffy was fully aware of the size difference between him and an adult. He was still just a kid. The best he would have been able to do was maybe distract the bandits, pull them away from Makino and the bar chasing him. It wasn't like he was some strong fighter able t-

Shanks.

Luffy's rage found a second, lesser outlet as he remembered that there _was_ someone super strong in town who could have stopped Higuma. Who could have saved Makino and her bar from the disgusting, spiteful bandits. Why wasn't he there? Hadn't Shanks said Higuma couldn't defeat him in a thousand years? What had the pirate captain been doing as Makino was beaten into the ground, her pride and joy trampled down by this filth?

" _He's back!_ " shouted someone from outside, interrupting the seemingly endless flow of questions running through Luffy's mind. Taking a few more moments to stare at Makino's injuries and sear the image of her into his brain, he turned and slowly made his way outside.

As he slowly left the room and exited Woop Slap's home, Luffy distantly realized he didn't really care whether it was Shanks or Higuma that was back. He wanted to hurt them both.

* * *

As Shanks slowly walked back into town with Lucky Roo and Beckman following closely behind, he held his straw hat in one hand while running the other through his flaming red hair.

"How did things become such a mess so quickly?" the pirate captain questioned the air, not receiving any response. "First Luffy steals and eats our Devil Fruit, then those garbage bandits ruin the bar and hurt Makino, now we'll have to leave town because Garp won't be able to ignore the reports of pirate activity so close to his grandkid and will come investigate…"

Coming around the final corner of the path leading into the village, the trio stopped in their tracks at the sight of Luffy's small frame standing squarely in the middle of the road and glaring in their direction and Shanks in particular.

"How could you let this happen?"

Luffy's accusation drew a wince out of Shanks as he sighed heavily. "Luffy…"

"Save it. I don't want to hear some dumb excuses or anything this time. You're so much stronger than them, right? He could never beat me in a thousand years, you said. Where was all that strength while Makino was being hurt and her bar destroyed?" Luffy asked in an unnaturally calm manner in comparison to his usual boisterous self.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Shanks glanced at both of his companions only to get helpless shrugs in response. This wasn't how he had wanted the conversation to go. "Look, Luffy, it's over and done with. Higuma and his bandits will never be able to hurt anybody ever again."

"Good."

The single word response drew surprised expressions from all three members of the Red Hair Pirates as they looked between each other in shock. Luffy had never been comfortable with the idea of killing before, had what happened to Makino managed to shake him that much?

Clearing his throat, Beckman decided to cut into the conversation and hopefully defuse the ticking time bomb that was Luffy's anger right now. "We can't be everywhere kiddo, it doesn't matter how strong anybody is if they're not around to stop scum like those bandits from trying anything."

" _Bullshit!_ " Luffy finally lost his composure and screamed at them, his eyes never leaving Shanks once as he unleashed the pent up fury that had been steadily building since first seeing the bar in shambles. "You don't have to be everywhere to stop weaklings like that if you're strong! All you had to was show how strong you where when Higuma came the first time and this could have been avoided! If he was such a weakling and knew you were out of his league, he would have never had the guts to touch Makino because he'd know you would crush him into paste for it!" Luffy's chest heaved as he caught his breath again following the outburst before continuing in a calmer voice that somehow managed to not lose any of the accusation his yelling had contained. "You're the reason Makino is hurt," he concluded with an air of finality, his childish mentality latching onto the pirates as someone to blame for all of this now that Higuma was dead.

"…" Shanks was at a loss for words in the face of the rage behind Luffy's surprisingly coherent argument, and that moment of hesitation just solidified the child's belief in his new idea of power being the solution to protecting people that are precious to him.

"If being a pirate means not using your power to protect the people you care about like this, then I don't care about being one anymore." Luffy continued with a level of sincerity that let Shanks know he was deadly serious about this. "Marine, pirate, neither one matters. All that matters is being the strongest. And I'll show you that one day. I'll come fight you once I'm strong, prove to you that I'm right, and take that hat from you."

Walking forward without a word, Shanks stopped right in front of the young boy for a moment before reaching down and tousling his hair with a sad smile. "Alright then Luffy, if that's your new dream then so be it. I look forward to fighting you one day as a man. Just… don't forget why you want to be strong, okay? The strongest person in the world has nothing without people he cares about surrounding him."

"Of course!" Luffy shouted with a slightly watery smile at his idol finally acknowledging him and his dream. No matter how much they disagreed over how to use strength, Shanks was still one of the most important people in the world to the young boy. "I'm gonna build my own crew and we're gonna make a name for ourselves! Just you wait!"

"Sure thing Luffy, I can wait for that." Shanks nodded to both Lucky Roo and Beckman, passing Luffy and beginning their trek towards the village harbor. "C'mon guys, it's time for us to go. We need to gather the rest of the crew and head out. Luffy, apologize to Makino for me, won't you? After hearing about what we just did to so many of those bandits, marines will be here soon. Don't need an unnecessary fight like that and the risk of Foosha being caught in the crossfire is too high."

"Yeah, I can do that," Luffy responded softly, anger now extinguished by the fact that it could be a very long time until he saw the pirates again. "I'm gonna miss you guys, even if Shanks is really dumb sometimes."

"Dahahaha! There's the Luffy we all know and love," Shanks burst out laughing and tossed a wide grin over his shoulder towards the boy. "I'm not gonna say goodbye, alright? 'Cause we're gonna meet up again years from now and have that fight. Don't go dying on me anytime soon little anchor! I'll see you on the Grand Line!"

Nodding wordlessly with tears fully blurring his vision now, Luffy couldn't think of anything to say in response. He just stood there, watching the three men walk away. There was nothing else that needed to be said anyways. The promise had been made.

They _would_ meet again.

* * *

In another world, another life, the discovery of his Gum-Gum powers set Monkey D. Luffy squarely on the path to become the notorious Pirate King. An encounter with bandits, escape from a Sea King, and a precious gift from an injured friend all contributed to this and solidified that goal. But that was another life, in another world. In _this_ one, Monkey D. Luffy ran away to the nearby forest to train and discover what his new powers could possibly be. He did _not_ get into a fight with bandits in that small bar, and ironically enough that small change shifted the vector of his destiny by just a few degrees. A new dream was chosen, and this would come to change _everything_.

* * *

Nearly a decade later, a young man stood out by the same harbor that Shanks and the Red Hair Pirates left from all those years ago. Spiky white hair hung down from his head to roughly ear length, pale skin practically shone in the bright sunlight, and piercing red eyes surveyed the endless expanse of ocean in front of him and his small rowboat. Wearing long black jeans with a simple leather belt tucked into a pair of comfortable boots on his feet and a long sleeved shirt with an alternating black and white arrow pattern on his torso, the man continued staring out to sea for another minute before cracking a wide grin.

"Sabo, watch over me. I'm gonna go out to sea now and make you proud!" Luffy cried out to the heavens as he hopped in the 'boat' and began to row away from the safe harbor and the only home he had ever known. "Shanks, you better get ready. I'm coming for that hat! I'm ready to become the strongest in the world."

* * *

 **A/N: So if you've made it this far and know anything about One Piece, you can clearly tell I won't be just following canon exactly with a different Devil Fruit. I have no issue with those who choose to just rewrite the main story with their OCs or added romances because many of them turn out to be great stories. It's just not for me. There's no fun or challenge in trying to write that to me personally, so I'll be changing things every now and then. My Luffy won't be exactly canon, so to me it makes sense for things to change. Whether these things are large like him just wanting to be the world's strongest instead of Pirate King or small like Shanks still having his left arm you'll just have to wait and see!**

 **One thing to keep in mind is to be gentle with me when I inevitably make mistakes with One Piece lore. I haven't actually read much of the manga or watched the anime, all of my knowledge comes from Fanfiction and the One Piece Wiki. I'm going to make mistakes, so please just point them out to me either in Reviews or Private Messages and I'll either fix them or explain why I'll be keeping things the way they are in this particular story.**


	2. East Blue: Shells Town

V For Vectors

 **Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or To Aru Majutsu No Index. Nothing you recognize from any other works of fiction belong to me in any way, shape, or form. I am not profiting off of this story in any way and write for fun only.**

 **A/N: I don't want to write Luffy as an Uber-powered God who stomps every obstacle in his path. He's not suddenly a genius, his Devil Fruit powers WILL have weaknesses, and he won't be able to casually deflect anything he wants without a care in the world. He will have limits, but it won't seem that way in the beginning because East Blue is pathetic. While not technically a Logia, in terms of defense you can think of it that way. Nobody in the East Blue has Haki to bypass it, the smarts required to figure out the weaknesses, or the raw strength to overpower him. I promise not to spend too much time on East Blue and things will escalate in the Grand Line.**

 **East Blue: Shells Town**

"Well this has been pretty boring other than the very beginning so far," Luffy pouted as he lay on his back, staring up at the blue sky and occasional cloud. "Ever since the sea monster there's been nothing but clear skies, water, and rowing. I didn't expect this journey to be action packed from the very start, but it would be nice for _something_ to happen eventually."

Idly ensuring the oars continued rotating on their own with his Devil Fruit powers to keep the rowboat moving forward, Luffy closed his eyes and thanked the heavens for having such a versatile ability. When he had first discovered the changes brought about on that fateful day with Shanks and Higuma, he'd been horrified to say the least. His childish mind hadn't had a single clue of how ungodly the ability to calculate and manipulate vectors was, only that it required using his head and that it wasn't something stupidly flashy like shooting lightning bolts. Garp had very quickly beaten that notion out of his head years ago fortunately.

Luffy shivered in spite of the blazing sunlight and warm weather as he thought back to the hellish training that Garp had put him through shortly after the Vice Admiral had learned about his grandson's misadventures and new power. True, he _had_ specifically asked the famous marine to help him become stronger and get a head start on his new dream of becoming the strongest in the world, but still. Nobody deserved that kind of torture, no matter how brief it had ended up being.

Sitting up abruptly and looking around in all directions just to make sure nothing had changed in the last 30 minutes or so, Luffy gave another exasperated sigh. Sunshine sparkled across the top of the water, waves gently crested all around, and the wind sang as it whistled across the ocean.

Laying back down and closing his eyes, Luffy let his mind wander. The sea was beautiful, but he couldn't really enjoy it by himself.

It was time to start building a crew.

* * *

" _I need you to help me get strong, Gramps," Luffy stated with an air of seriousness that the Vice Admiral had never seen from his usually goofy grandson. "No more messing around. I won't complain, I won't try to get out of it or run away anymore."_

" _Bwahahaha! Have you finally decided to give up on being a good for nothing pirate and become a strong marine instead then?" Garp laughed at the request from his boy, ready to rehash their usual argument for the thousandth time. "I'm not gonna be remembered as the old fool who trained the future Pirate King! Survival exercises are fine, but I can't just teach you everything I know you brat! "_

 _He had been worried when news reached the local marine base of pirates killing people on Dawn Island and rushed to Foosha as quickly as possible to make sure his grandson was unharmed. It had been a great relief to learn from one of the first villagers he had encountered that the only ones killed had been bandits and that it was only in retaliation for hurting the local barmaid._

" _I don't want to be the Pirate King anymore, Gramps."_

" _THEN I'M NOT GONNA TRA- wait sorry what was that?" Garp's eyes nearly bugged out of his head as the words sunk in and their routine was changed for the first time since Luffy had set his mind on being the King of Pirates. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T WANNA BE THE PIRATE KING? Did you realize how much better it is to be a marine and fight for justice?"_

" _No, I'm not going to be a marine either," Luffy corrected him with a frown. "I don't care about justice like that, I just want to be the strongest in the world. Who cares about being the King of Pirates or some Marine Admiral if you can't defend your precious people because you're stuck following dumb rules or constantly having to fight the World Government?"_

" _...Hmmmmm," Garp hummed to himself under his breath as he considered the boy standing in front of him. Something had to have happened in order to drastically change Luffy's view of the world if he was willing to give up on his previous dream this quickly. "What changed, brat? The old you would have fought to the death to defend your dream. Not that it's a bad change or anything!" the Vice Admiral quickly admitted at the sight of the boy's face darkening. He didn't want his grandson to change his mind and go back to dreaming of piracy after all._

" _They told you what happened to Makino, right Gramps?" Luffy asked, continuing once Garp nodded. "Even though Shanks was strong and Higuma was weak, those shitty bandits still hurt her so bad because they didn't know how strong Shanks was and didn't fear him. He let the bandits make a mess of the bar when they first came and laughed it off because he knew he could beat them all with no problems. If he had shown them how strong he was, they wouldn't have gone near her and she wouldn't have lost an arm and her bar."_

" _I'm sorry to hear about your friend getting hurt, brat. But what does that have to do with me training you or being the strongest in the world?" Garp questioned, having trouble following the child's convoluted reasoning and explanation._

" _Because once I'm the strongest in the world,_ everybody _will know my name all around the world on every sea!" Luffy cried out, eyes shining with emotion as he stared down the Vice Admiral. "Everybody will know how strong I am and how badly I'll hurt them for daring to touch one of my precious people! The very thought of hurting somebody I care about will strike fear into people's hearts! But I can't get there alone, I need help. So please, Gramps…"_

 _Luffy dropped to his knees and bowed his face so low to the ground that his forehead actually touched the dirt in front of him._

" _Help me get strong enough that I never have to come so close to losing someone ever again!"_

 _Garp was silent for a very long time, but Luffy didn't dare raise his head up from the ground._ Everything _was riding on this. He couldn't even figure out what his Devil Fruit power_ was _, let alone begin to train it and become a master. Sure, he would be able to train on his own or with Ace and Sabo for the time being, but it wouldn't be enough. For all of his goofy attitude, rebellious nature, and stubbornness, Garp was still a Vice Admiral. He was leagues beyond anybody else Luffy would be able to convince to help out on Dawn Island. Even just a few pointers or snippets of advice would be worth more than months of Luffy stumbling through ineffective training on his own._

 _As the silence stretched even further still, Luffy began to resign himself to failure. It was hopeless, Garp would never agree to train him unless he became a stupid marine. Once the older man set his mind on something, neither heaven nor earth would be able to shake him from that course. You had a better chance of ta-_

" _You'll become a bounty hunter."_

 _Luffy's heart nearly stopped as the oppressive silence was finally broken, eyes shooting wide open in surprise. Raising his head fast enough to give someone whiplash, the boy stared up at his grandfather in a desperate hope that he had not misheard the stern Vice Admiral. "You… do you really…"_

" _You need to swear to me that you won't become a pirate first, Luffy. I can't force you to become a marine if you truly don't think you can become strong with us, but you will_ not _be a pirate. Swear it to me, and I will help you," Garp finished with a sense of finality that let Luffy know that this was the best offer he would get from the man. There would be no negotiating or trickery here, Luffy would either give his word or Garp would leave._

 _Thinking hard for a few minutes, Luffy turned the demand over in his head. Which was worth more? The remnants of the dream he had held previously, or the help he needed to achieve his new one? Training with Garp would probably be hell considering the Vice Admiral's dedication to 'tough love', but… he needed to be strong to keep his friends and family safe. That's all there was to it._

" _Okay Gramps, I won't be a pirate. I'll be a bounty hunter instead so I can still fight lots of strong people and make a name for myself! One day I'll be even more famous than you are, just you wait!" Luffy grinned as he boldly declared his intentions, standing up once more and pointing a finger directly at the impassive marine._

 _The world seemed to pause, and silence once again reigned over the immediate area as Garp simply stared at the young boy with an unamused expression on his weathered face. Beads of sweat formed and began trailing down Luffy's face and neck as he wondered if he had gone too far with that last bit. What if Garp changed his mind now? Maybe he should apologize?_

" _BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Garp's laughter shredded through the tense atmosphere immediately as the formerly stoic marine doubled over laughing. There were tears in the older man's eyes as he clutched his sides, barely managing to remain standing through the force of his laughter. "M-more famous than me! A tiny little squirt like you? Don't make me laugh so hard Luffy!"_

 _Veins popped out on Luffy's forehead as he gritted his teeth hard enough that they creaked, hands balled into fists. "SHUT UP STUPID GRAMPS! I'M GONNA BE THE STRONGEST IN THE ENTIRE WORLD, AND THEN I'LL KICK YOUR BUTT FOR LAUGHING AT ME!"_

 _If anything, the Luffy's words only made Garp's laughter even more hysterical and it took nearly a full 3 minutes for the older man to finally calm down. "I'm sorry Luffy," he wiped the remaining tears away from his eyes. "Have you considered a career as a comedian instead of all this fighting? You could threaten people with making them laugh to death! Bwahahaha!"_

 _Growling at the disrespect, Luffy just waited without saying anything until Garp calmed down once more. Taking a deep breath to relax himself slightly, Luffy bowed once more at the waist this time to the Vice Admiral. "Thank you for agreeing to train me, Gramps. I won't forget it."_

" _Damn right you won't forget it, brat!" Garp barked out in his Drill Sergeant voice, apparently ready to get down to business. Hands behind his back at a parade rest position, the Vice Admiral got right up in Luffy's face to yell at him. "I'm only going to have around 2 months to be here before Sengoku gets fed up with me ignoring my duties and threatens to demote me to Cabin Boy! So we're going to be shoving as much training as possible into these next few week, am I understood? I will beat you black and blue, I will make you cry, I will push you to your limits! You_ will _hate me by the end of this, and you_ will _be stronger! Once I leave, you will continue with the training I began as best you can, however you can! If you're gonna be strongest in the world some day, your scrawny ass will need all the help it can get! So don't you dare thank me, am I clear?"_

 _Blood rushed from Luffy's face and his knees shook as he realized_ just _what he had signed himself up for. The idea of running briefly came to mind before he mentally sobbed knowing Garp would catch him. There was no escape from this now that he had committed to it. Taking a deep breath once more, he did his best to prepare himself._

 _He_ would _become the strongest._

" _Now, let's see what kind of shitty template I have to work with and turn into a masterpiece!" Garp suddenly rocketed towards Luffy's head with a patented Fist of Love almost quicker than the untrained eye could even follow._

 _This was going to_ hurt.

* * *

Luffy let out a jaw-cracking yawn as he sat up, stretching out his cramped muscles carefully with a series of arm rotations. Rolling his neck back and forth let out a series of loud pops, and he blearily opened his eyes to the sight of his boat still drifting along the waves in a comfortable shade. Boats were not the most comfortable place in the world to take a nap, and he grumbled slightly as he stood up and a couple joints popped. At least the sun wasn't constantly shining in his eyes anymore thanks to the…

Wait why was there shade from the sunlight out in the middle of the ocean?

Suddenly wide awake as he whirled around, Luffy's eyes shot wide open at the sight of a rather luxurious looking cruise ship slowly beginning to keel over onto its side. Next to it floated a smaller, but far deadlier looking pirate ship that appeared to have just finished firing a salvo of cannonballs into the larger vessel. Boarding ladders and ramps stretched over the ocean between the two ships and connected them, and rugged looking men streamed onto the larger ship with an assortment of battle-cries that blended together into a dull roar of noise. From what he could see, the few sailors on the cruise ship that were on deck had been caught completely off guard by the assault and were quickly being overwhelmed by the pirates.

"Ah, I _really_ need to stop subconsciously reflecting sound away when I'm sleeping. It's going to get me into some serious trouble someday," Luffy sighed in exasperation. After taking a few moments to analyze the current situation and how the fight was going, he nodded firmly to himself. "Alright, might as well help them! Who knows, maybe one of the pirates could even give me a good fight!"

With that said, Luffy crouched for a moment to prepare himself before jumping straight up the side of the ship in a single leap with some slight help from his abilities. However, instead of landing cleanly on the main deck as intended, the wood buckled under the impact of his weight and he crashed through the floor into one of the rooms beneath. Glaring up at the hole in the ceiling, he mourned the loss of his chance for a cool entrance.

A surprised squeak from the doorway dragged Luffy out of his wandering thoughts about superhero landings and theatrical entrances. Turning towards the origin of the noise, he raised an eyebrow at the boy frozen in the entrance staring at him. Pink hair, scrawny physique, glasses, hunched posture, and terrified eyes; nearly everything about this newcomer screamed 'not a threat'.

"U-uhm, a-are you a passenger on this ship, mister? You really sh-shouldn't be here..." the boy eventually managed to stammer out, looking as though he would rather be almost anywhere else.

"Nope, I just happened to be passing by when I saw the pirates attacking this ship and came to check it out!" Luffy grinned at the disbelieving expression that the newcomer was now sporting.

"A-are you crazy mister?" the boy's eyes looked like they were just a few moments away from popping out of his head. "The A-a-alvida Pirates are currently raiding and looting this ship! You need to get away as quickly as possible before they find you and rob you blind! Find somewhere to hide quickly!"

Deciding to mess with the high-strung kid just a little bit, Luffy acted as though the suggestion had never occurred to him and he was thankful for the advice. Looking quickly around the room for a few moments, he suddenly stuck a finger in the air as a metaphorical light bulb lit up over his head. "Nope, not gonna hide! That's for cowards."

"Yep," 'pink-hair' as Luffy was internally calling him mumbled despairingly under his breath while facefaulting at the declaration. "He's definitely crazy…"

"Shishishi!" Luffy broke out into laughter at the kid's reaction. Maybe it was a little mean to mess with him like this, but it sure was funny. There wasn't a chance in hell of some two-bit no name pirate actually managing to scratch him, but the kid didn't know that. "So kid, if these big, scary pirates are invading the ship why aren't you hiding in a ball somewhere? Are you some secret badass that hides his strength behind that dumb appearance?"

"My name isn't kid, it's Koby! And who are you calling dumb, looking like an albino vampire wannabe?" Koby shouted back with a vein popping out on his forehead before realizing what he had done and shrinking in on himself again in preparation for the scary looking stranger to beat him up. After a few moments without feeling any pain, Koby peeked out from behind his fingers with one eye only to see the stranger cracking up again.

"Shishishishi! So you _do_ have a bit of spine hidden in you somewhere!" Luffy chuckled, grinning widely at the boy. "Nice to meet you Koby! But you never answered my question, is there some secret reason you don't feel like you have to hide from the pirates? They'll definitely try to pick on an easy looking target like you."

As the realization that he would not be beaten up for talking back to the now introduced Luffy sank in, Koby slowly unfurled himself from his usual defensive position with a sigh. "I-I'm not actually from this cruise ship. I… um, I guess you could kinda call me the Alvida Pirates' cabin boy…" Koby trailed off glumly.

Tilting his head to the side almost like a confused puppy, Luffy put his hand on his chin to think and stared at the cabin boy for a minute. "Wow, they must be super lame pirates to let someone like you become a part of the crew, huh?"

"I didn't want to join these stupid pirates!" Koby shouted with a red face, pointing a finger at the still grinning Luffy. "It was an honest mistake, one day I-"

Whatever story Koby had been about to tell was abruptly interrupted as a small group of pirates burst in through the door and stopped at the sight of the two talking to each other. Swaggering up to the pair, the apparent leader of the group pulled out and brandished a flintlock pistol in what Luffy guessed was supposed to be a threatening manner.

"So this is where you scurried off to Koby," the large man leered at the now trembling cabin boy. "What do you think you're doing down here all by yourself? Trying to steal some valuables for yourself? Or just trying to spend some time with your new boyfriend here?"

As the small group of men began to cackle as though the large one had told the funniest joke of all time, Luffy ignored them completely. Instead, he observed Koby with the sad acceptance of his earlier suspicions being true. Curling in on himself, hiding his face, looking anywhere but his tormentors, the lack of that spirit he was willing to show earlier when Luffy had been teasing him. Facial expression darkening, the aspiring bounty hunter turned towards the pirate holding the pistol with a deadly look in his eyes.

"Do they hurt you often, Koby?"

Despite being spoken at a normal volume, the question managed to cut through the noise in the room like paper. As everybody turned towards him in various states of disbelief at the random question, Luffy never took his eyes off of the pirate group's leader.

"I asked you a question Koby. Do. They. Hurt. You. Often?"

The pink haired boy in question remained absolutely silent, whether from fear, shock, or simply surprise at this complete stranger asking him a question like that. As the silence stretched on longer and longer, the nameless grunt with the pistol seemed to get over his initial shock and once again realize that the weird albino kid was outnumbered 4 to 1.

"The fuck does it matter to you, kid? What we do to him is none of your goddamn business," he spat, sending spittle flying with practically every other word. "Now, hand over everything you have of value and get ready for the beating of a lifetime." To emphasize his point, he swung the pistol in his hand around and aimed it directly at Luffy's forehead.

"It's supposed to be 'or'," Luffy offhandedly commented, apparently unconcerned with the weapon being pointed in his direction.

"Huh?" came the eloquent response.

"You're supposed to say 'hand over everything you have of value _or_ get a beating'. Not _and_. There's no real incentive to give you all of my stuff without a fight if I'm going to get a beating anyways, you see?" Luffy beamed with a wide smile as though his life wasn't currently being threatened and it was simply an everyday conversation with a friend.

Looking at each other once more in confusion, the poor pirates were completely caught off guard. This wasn't how things were supposed to go at all. They threaten the helpless civilians with guns, fists, or anything point they could get their hands on, the civilians beg for their lives, and they graciously allow the babies to escape without losing a limb or two for the small fee of everything they owned. It was a tried and true system that had never failed until now, so the lack of expected response from the weirdo in front of them was throwing them all off of their game.

"Alright enough of this bullshit!" Leader snarled, clearly tired of having to think about what was going on and eager to return to looting. Swiftly tucking the gun away for the time being, he cocked his fist back and threw a sloppy jab towards the irritating kid's face.

"Look out!" Koby shouted, terrified for his new... friend? Acquaintance? Stranger? Whatever he was, he didn't deserve to be jumped by the pirates. But it was too late, there was no time to react and Luffy hadn't even taken his hands out of his pockets yet. Just as Koby was about to screw his eyes shut and turn away, it happened.

The tightly clenched hand bounced away off of an invisible barrier just a centimeter or so from Luffy's face. The redirected force of the punch was forced back into the man's wrist and the bones gave way with a sickening crunch as they broke.

Everybody froze once again in shock as the pirate fell back with an agonized cry, cradling the now useless hand like a baby. All eyes in the room stayed locked on the boy who had previously been discounted entirely as a threat but now managed to have the largest presence of anybody on the entire ship. One brave, or perhaps foolish, soul managed to grab his flintlock pistol in a trembling hand and slowly brought it up to eye level.

"W-what the hell was that? How did you do that to Clarence?" he demanded with a shaky wave of the pistol.

"That man's a pirate when his real name's Clarence?" Luffy's grin uncomfortably resembled a shark's, still unfazed by what would be a genuine threat to a normal person. "Look, I'll give you all a deal. You run away and leave Koby and me alone, and I won't do to you all what I did to him," he gestured vaguely in the direction of Clarence's broken wrist.

All Koby could do was look on in astonishment, his jaw hanging so low that it nearly touched the floor as the Alvida Pirates back away carefully towards the door like they were moving away from some great predator. This group of people who had been tormenting him for the past 2 years nonstop were all terrified of this single newcomer who didn't look all that much older than himself. Somehow, while completely motionless and relaxed with his hands in his pockets he managed to seem far scarier than Alvida could ever hope to on her best day.

As the motley crew of pirates finished their cautious backpedal and exited the room, their attitude did a complete flip and every single one sprinted away while calling out for help or their boss.

"Shishishi! What a bunch of cowards!" Luffy snickered to himself as they got further and further away. "All of that over a broken wrist."

" _That was so incredible!_ " Koby exclaimed, stars in his eyes. "Who are you? How did you do that? Where did you lea-"

"My name is Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm gonna be the strongest man in the entire world!" Luffy cut off the flood of questions before Koby could gain too much steam, not really caring to answer most of them. "Now, is there any food around here? I didn't pack nearly enough onto the rowboat with me when I left Foosha…"

Koby wordlessly pointed out the nearby storage pantry and simply sat watching his savior eat for a minute before realizing _exactly_ what Luffy had just said. "Ah, Luffy, did you mean what you said? About wanting to be the strongest person in the entire world one day? Like, stronger than _everybody_ else out there?"

"Yep!" Luffy grinned around a mouthful of the fruit he had taken from the pantry, swallowing before continuing. "I'm going to be the strongest. I'm gonna be stronger than any pirates, marines, bounty hunters, even the World Government!"

"But that's impossible! Nobody can fight against the might of the Marines _and_ World Government!" Koby gaped at him, mouth hanging wide open. "They'll crush you before you even get close! It's impossible, impossible, impossible, impo-"

"Oh shut up," Luffy cut off the nearly hysterical boy with a sharp frown. It was getting a little annoying how Koby seemed to switch back and forth between spineless acceptance of what others said and then trying to convince them something wasn't possible. "It doesn't matter what anybody else thinks about it, it's my dream. I _will_ be the strongest in the world. And if I die trying to achieve that… well there are worse ways to have it happen than in pursuit of your dreams."

The words seemed to strike Koby like lightning, and the younger boy looked down at his feet with tears in his eyes. "I-I don't think I could ever be like that…" he mumbled dejectedly. "The only reason I'm even here with the Alvida Pirates is because I got on the wrong boat one day when I was going fishing. I've always been too scared to stand up for myself or try to run away, so I've stayed here for the past 2 years as their slave."

Luffy whistled, slightly impressed. "Well damn, that really is pretty pathetic and cowardly." At the choked sob from the pink haired boy, he internally winced. Maybe he was being too hard on the kid? "Look, the past is the past. You can't change that. But the future… the future is always up for grabs! Nobody is stopping you from becoming someone like that but yourself."

"You know," Koby mumbled thoughtfully, "I've always dreamed of becoming a strong marine and catching bad guys." Standing up and bracing himself as though just talking about his dream would cause the world to turn on him, he continued. "I've decided! I'm going to join the Marines, become an Admiral, and catch bad people like Alvida! Wait no, I'll catch Alvida myself! I'm gonna-"

The passionate rant was cut off by a loud crash as someone came flying down through the previously created hole in the ceiling, the wood underneath their feet groaning at the strain. To Luffy's amazement, the newcomer somehow managed to take up the majority of the free space left in the room all by herself.

Not even looking at Luffy for the moment, the gargantuan woman turned to Koby with a rumbling growl. "You're going to catch who, Koby?" Alvida smirked while lifting her massive club up into the air threateningly. "I might be persuaded to let that little comment slide though. All you have to do is answer this correctly: Who's the most beautiful woman on all the seas?"

"A-ah, that is… um, th-that is t-t-to say…" the boy in question began to stammer out, falling back into his usual patterns when dealing with any of the Alvida Pirates.

"Really?" Luffy groaned loudly at the return of Koby's drastic mood swings. It was apparently going to be something they need to work on. "You were doing so well though! If you let some fat, ugly nobody like this scare you away from chasing after your dream, you'll never be an Admiral."

"We're gonna die," Koby mumbled to himself in the following silence as tears streamed down his face.

Alvida's face rapidly turned an incredibly unflattering shade of purple and tic marks began popping up on her forehead as she turned towards the unknown brat who dared to talk about her like that. "Who the hell do you think you are, squirt? Everybody knows that I'm the most beautiful woman on all the seas, isn't that right?" Alvida directed the last bit towards the stunned members of her crew watching on through the hole in the roof.

"Yes Ma'am!"

"You're the most beautiful, Lady Alvida!"

"That's right!"

Despite how shocking it was to see someone standing up to their behemoth of a captain, all of the observing pirates were quick to shout their assent in response to the question. It didn't matter what you were doing or how prepared you were for the question, nobody lasted long in the Alvida pirates without learning to agree or shout about the captain's beauty on the fly.

Her rage momentarily appeased, Alvida turned back towards Luffy once more with an ugly sneer covering her face. "When some of my boys came upstairs screaming about someone strong on the boat kicking their butts I thought for sure it'd be that pirate hunter Zoro, or at least someone threatening. Not some skinny little kid like you."

"Shut up, you!" Luffy fired back with a vein popping on his forehead, looking down at himself critically. "Just because my muscles aren't massive and don't make me some kind of hulking monstrosity doesn't mean I don't have them. It's called _definition_ , not that you'd know anything about being healthy in general. How much would you guess you weigh? One or two whales?"

At this point everybody within earshot other than Luffy and Alvida was in tears with their mouths hanging wide open. Didn't the idiot know he was condemning everybody nearby to death once he got the captain into one of her rages?

"Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. DEAD! DEAD!" Alvida's chant grew louder and more frantic as she repeated it, eyes bloodshot and mouth foaming. "I AM LADY ALVIDA, OF THE ALVIDA PIRATES! MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN ON ALL THE SEAS! MY BOUNTY IS WORTH 5,000,000 BERRIES! YOU'RE NOTHING COMPARED TO ME!" Alvida screamed at the top of her lungs, hefting her massive mace up into the air. With an ear-splitting roar, she wound up to swing it down towards the still motionless Luffy who only stared up at her in surprise rather than try to dodge.

"5,000,000 berries?" the white haired man gasped.

"That's right, you should be trembling with fear!" Alvida grunted, whipping the spiked metal instrument directly at the insolent brat's skull.

"Pretty damn gutsy of you to assume you can fight someone like me when you're only worth a measly 5,000,000 berries," Luffy whispered with a predatory smile that showed far more teeth than was comfortable.

Once again, Koby could do nothing but watch as everything he thought he knew about the world crumbled to dust. Despite weighing nearly half a ton, immediately before contact against Luffy's skin the spiked hunk of metal rebounded just like the pirate's hand earlier with similarly devastating consequences. Unable to adjust to the sudden redirection in force of her powerful swing, Alvida's arm nearly tore right out of its socket and the massive woman was thrown off balance with a bellow of pain.

Casually strolling forward in the direction of the flabbergasted captain, Luffy hummed a cheerful tune under his breath. Despite meaning what he had said about Alvida's bounty being small-time, it would actually be somewhat worthwhile to capture her and collect it. He would need a real ship soon, after all. A dinky rowboat wasn't nearly impressive enough for who aspired to the title of strongest in the world. Appearances did matter, regardless of what anybody else thought. Intimidation was a valuable tool in avoiding unnecessary fights or preventing two-bit glory seekers from trying to challenge him despite being out of their league.

"Alright, so now that play time is hopefully over, here's how things are going to go," Luffy chuckled as he addressed the glaring woman. "I am hopelessly out of your league. In terms of strength and combat ability, you are a common trout while I might as well be a Sea King. Nothing you can possibly do will touch me. Not guns, not knives, not massive spiked maces. You can peacefully surrender, at which time I will take control of your boat, we will sail to the nearest marine base, and I will turn you over to them for your bounty. You could also resist, in which case I will knock you out, take control of your boat, sail to the nearest marine base, and turn you in anyways just with more injuries. The choice is yours." As Luffy spoke, he took his hands out of his pockets for the first time since the first group of pirates arrived and flexed them menacingly. The air seemed to shimmer and vibrate around both fists, causing Alvida to lose all color in her face.

"You… you have one of those Devil Fruit, don't you? So they really exist…" Alvida trailed off with a sudden hunger in her eyes despite her current situation. "They're said to give the power of a Devil to anybody who eats them, and when a current user dies the Devil Fruit will just reincarnate into a nearby ordinary piece of fruit."

As a look of determination set itself on Alvida's face and greed filled her eyes, Luffy just facepalmed in exasperation. "You're about to make a very bad mistake, Alvida. None of you can even touch me, let alone kill me to get you my Devil Fruit."

Completely ignoring the final warning she was going to receive, the overweight woman smirked and turned to her assorted crew. "1,000,000 berries to the man who manages to take him down!" Alvida roared loudly enough to make everyone nearby wince. "GET HIM BOYS!"

"I really need to make myself look more intimidating somehow," Luffy grumbled to himself, unconcerned with the dozens of men currently charging at him. "It's not my damn fault that my powers essentially turn me albino and make getting ripped unnecessary. This is going to be tiring having to show small fries their place over and over." Glancing at the oncoming crowd once again, he rolled his sleeves up slightly.

"Let's get this over with."

Calling it a fight would be _far_ to generous. A fight implies that there be some kind of violent contact or struggle on both sides. Luffy did not struggle. It was far more accurate to compare the next minute or so to an angry god smiting some ants while in a particularly bad mood.

The oncoming flood of pirates broke around Luffy like a rock. The slightest of movements from the aspiring bounty hunter resulted in yet another unconscious or decommissioned member of Alvida's crew. None of the motions _should_ have been enough to hurt a fully grown man, but all it seemed to take was a brief moment of contact for the offending pirate's body to rebel against its owner. Knees bent the wrong way, wrists snapped themselves back at unnatural angles, shoulders popped out of their sockets. In comparison to the hyper effective fighting style Luffy displayed, the rapidly diminishing group of pirates were just children playing with toy weapons. No matter how desperate or powerfully they attacked, nothing worked.

In the roughly 84 seconds that had passed since Alvida gave the order to charge, every person on the main deck other than Luffy, Koby, and Alvida was taken out and unconscious.

"Who the hell even are you?" Alvida's eyes were bloodshot and wide open at the casual display of violence.

"Ah, I never introduced myself, huh? I'm Monkey D. Luffy, aspiring bounty hunter and the man who will be strongest in the world!" Luffy grinned widely.

"Oh I don't think so," Alvida snarled. "You're not going to be anything after I kill you and take that Devil Fruit from you right here and now! But first," she then turned towards her pink haired cabin boy with a leer. "Koby! You never answered my question, brat. Who's the most beautiful woman on all the seas?"

"Ah, well th-that is o-of course…" Koby began to stutter out before pausing, Luffy's words echoing through his head. The only one stopping from being brave was himself, huh? Glancing back and forth between the man who had managed to rock his world in less than 30 minutes, and the abusive woman who had made his life hell for an entire 2 years, the decision was easy.

"Anybody but you! You're nothing but an ugly, old, petty, mean, SEA HAG!"

"Shishishishishi!" Luffy nearly fell over laughing at the near apoplectic rage that filled Alvida's face at the defiance from her usual whipping boy. The David and Goliath imagery of this tiny, pathetic cabin boy standing up to his ogre of a captain and calling her a sea hag was just too much.

Glaring up at his now former captain, Koby surprisingly found himself with no regrets about what he had just said. Even as Alvida screamed in fury and swung her club down, he kept his eyes wide open rather than close them and try to curl into a ball like usual. If he was going to die here, he would at least do it with his pride intact, standing up for himself in pursuit of a dream for once.

Luckily for the scrawny ex-pirate, Luffy blurred into existence between the two of them just before impact and actually _caught_ the massive weapon with a single upraised hand. Unable to believe her eyes, Alvida attempted to user her considerable weight as leverage and extra force to push her way through and crush these little bugs.

This turned out to be a mistake.

Caught between a mountain on one side and Luffy's mysterious powers on the other, the mace seemed to vibrate in place before suddenly shattering like a homemade bomb and sending sharp metal shards in every direction. While Luffy's barrier kept him and Koby behind him safe, Alvida was not nearly so lucky. With her size making the pirate captain such a large target, a good majority of the shrapnel ended up peppering her across the entirety of her body.

As Alvida fell back and passed out from the combination of shock and her injuries, Luffy just shook his head. "Some people just refuse to do things the easy way, huh?" Turning in a full circle to survey the state of the Alvida Pirate crew, his eyes suddenly bugged out and he began banging his head into the wooden railing next to him. "I forgot to leave enough people without broken bones to help sail their pirate ship," the now embarrassed bounty hunter cried with dramatic tears streaming down his face.

"Ah, there are rowboats on this cruise ship and one that I was building over on Alvida's ship," Koby offered hesitantly. Despite being a badass bounty hunter, having super powers, and being his savior, Luffy was _really_ weird sometimes. Speaking of which, Koby was still curious about these Devil Fruit Alvida had been talking about. "Luffy, do you mind me asking what kind of Devil Fruit you have?"

"Rowboats aren't good enough," Luffy whined. "We'll never fit Alvida in one of them, and I want to collect her bounty. She might just be some pathetic small fry from the weakest sea but you have to start building a reputation somewhere. As for my powers, you saw me reflect all those attacks, right?" Waiting for Koby to nod first, Luffy then continued. "So, if I have the ability to reflect attacks, that would make me…?"

"A reflecting man! You ate the Reflect-Reflect Fruit!" Koby exclaimed with stars in his eyes, fantasizing about all the cool things he would be able to do with his very own Devil Fruit if he could find one.

As Koby distracted himself with fantasy thoughts and admiration for the 'reflect' powers, Luffy felt a small twinge of guilt. Koby didn't seem like a bad person, per say, but he also didn't seem like one who would be able to keep his mouth shut. Additionally, he would likely be joining the Marines in the near future, and letting any of them know about the exact nature of his abilities would be Very Bad. With capital letters. He may not be an actual enemy of the World Government or Marines just yet, but Luffy had no doubts that eventually his self-imposed path of becoming strongest in the world would put him into conflict with both organizations. The less they knew about his powers and the less time they had to think of ways to counter it, the better. So he allowed Koby to think his Devil Fruit was something far more mundane, like reflection. It wasn't exactly _lying_ if you really thought about it, just letting the boy come to his own conclusions and not correcting them.

"Oh wow, look Luffy," Koby dragged him out of his thoughts with an excited shout. Pointing away from the ship and out to sea, he pumped a fist up into the air. "The Marines are here! We won't need to take a rowboat after all!"

As the dull metal hull of the approaching battleship cut through the choppy waves in their direction, Luffy just put his hands back in his pockets with a grin. There must have been a Den-Den Mushi located somewhere on the ship that one of the crew members used to call for help when the pirate raid began. Now both of their immediate goals were solved. Luffy could turn over the poor captain to the Marines, and Koby could come back to their base and ask to enlist.

"Well would you look at that? How convenient."

* * *

Luffy hummed absentmindedly to himself as he strolled down the gangplank and departed the Marines' ship into Shells Town. Idly looking around as he meandered towards the nearby market to buy something to snack on, he eventually realized that Koby was following directly behind him and currently talking.

"It's so exciting to finally be free of the Alvida Pirates!" Koby chattered in an excited manner, looking every which way and drinking in the peaceful surroundings. "I can finally go ahead with my dream and enlist in the Marines now. Say, Luffy, do you want to come with me to the base located here? I know that nice Lieutenant we met said you would need to speak to the Captain of this base in order to receive your bounty money. We could go together!"

Ever since Luffy had turned over the still unconscious Alvida to one of the marines and the man had locked her up in the battleship's brig, it had been impossible to get the pink haired boy to shut up. Probably something to do with having true freedom to say what he wanted for the first time in years. True to his initial prediction, Koby was not someone who could be entrusted with any type of secret. It had taken less than 30 seconds of informal questioning from one of the marines wanting to know what had happened for the boy to gush all about Luffy's 'reflect' powers and how cool they were.

Things had gotten tense for a few minutes when that particular information was given to the marines, prompting some of them begin muttering about the 'accursed demon' on board and whether or not they should try and take him down. Luckily the Lieutenant had discouraged any such nonsense with a couple of sharply barked orders to stand down and prepare to sail back to base.

And if Luffy had taken advantage of the Lieutenant's turned back to flash a wicked smile with a few too many teeth at the spooked sailors, well, nobody had been brave enough to call the white haired man out on it yet.

"Ah, sorry. Did you say something, Koby?" Luffy picked a bit of wax out of one ear with his pinky finger before flicking it at his companion. Tuning out the outraged yells with an ease that suggested years of practice ignoring people, the Luffy waited for the high strung marine hopefully to quiet down before speaking again. "Relax, I'm just messing with you. We can go to the base together, no problem. Shishishishi!"

Koby glared at the chuckling bounty hunter for a moment before stopping in place as he realized something. "Hey, we don't know where the base is. Maybe we could ask one of the people here for some directions!"

"It's a tiny town, it would only take a few minutes of exploring to find it…" Luffy deadpanned in response, but it was no use and Koby was already trotting off towards one of the nearby food stalls. Following along with a bored sigh, the white haired man quickly bought an apple from one of the nearby vendors before tuning in to the conversation.

"Hey there mister," Koby was practically bouncing in place with poorly restrained energy as he spoke. "Could you give us directions to the nearby Marine Base? We need to speak with Captain Morgan!"

It was like a verbal bomb went off in the square.

Luffy watched on with surprise and a raised eyebrow as faces paled, nervous glances were thrown, people subconsciously backed away, and parents rushed their children indoors. It was an odd reaction to simply hearing the name of the local Marine Captain, to put things gently.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Koby asked, completely oblivious to the new mood in the square. "Do you not know the way or something?"

Rather than explain the reactions, the food vendor who was asked the original question rattled off a quick set of directions in a terse voice before refusing any further attempts at conversation. Munching on his apple as the two of them set off, Luffy pondered the current mystery of Shells Town. It was unfortunate, but from how things currently looked there was at least a decent possibility of this Captain Morgan being either violent, an abuser of his power, or both. The chances of him getting along with a man like that were slim to none, and he groaned as he realized that he would have to play nice with the good Captain until Alvida's bounty was paid.

"That was pretty strange, I wonder why all those people acted so weird when I mentioned Captain Morgan's name?" Koby wondered out loud, scratching his head as they made their way down the street.

"Don't be dumb, Koby," Luffy poked his companion in the side of the head gently. "You know the answer to that. It's probably for the same reason that common people would fear _anybody_. Because the person they fear is stronger than them and not afraid to use that power when upset, exactly like you with the Alvida Pirates."

Koby looked dumbstruck at the blunt statement and nearly tripped over his own feet as he ground to a halt. "Are you trying to say Captain Morgan might be a bad guy? But that's impossible! He's a Marine Captain!"

Luffy didn't stop walking, turning around the corner and coming face to face with the front gate of the base. "The world isn't nearly that black and white, Koby," he called over his shoulder without fully turning around. "Organizations or ideas can't be good or evil like that. It's up to each individual member's actions and choices they make. Some of the most honorable men I've ever met in my life were pirates, and I can almost guarantee that there are marines out there who could put even the most black-hearted sea devil to shame. Now come on, we have a Marine Captain to speak with."

With that said, Luffy walked through the open gates and into the base, leaving a now contemplative Koby behind.

Thinking about the wisdom in those words for a good few minutes, Koby made his decision. Squaring his shoulders and raising his chin, he marched forward into the gates. Maybe it was possible that Captain Morgan wasn't a good man by default for being a marine, but he had come too far to turn back now! Besides, there was always the chance that Luffy was wrong!

* * *

Upon entering through the gates and stepping inside of the Marine Base for the first time, Luffy made sure to look around and take everything all the details that he could. So far, it was not terribly impressive. While he didn't know anything about Marine protocol, the bounty hunter figured there should have been at least a single guard of some kind to make sure that nobody unauthorized was entering the base. As it was, there wasn't a single soul in sight other than what appeared to be a man tied to a stake in the middle of the courtyard.

"So," Luffy began as he walked up to the restrained man. "Who are you supposed to be, and what did you do to get all tied up like this?" A critical eye roved up and down the man's restraints for a moment. "Those are some pretty weak knots, you know you can probably just brute force your way through them, right?" Luffy continued with a bemused expression, idly wondering if the prisoner would try to do so. Maybe he could recapture him and start off on a good note with Captain Morgan for preventing the escape attempt?

"Name's Roranoa Zoro, now beat it," the man growled. "I don't need to escape. I made a vow."

"Huh, alright then," Luffy raised an eyebrow. In spite of the terrible condition that the man was in, he somehow managed to still project an aura of defiance and danger. It was rather impressive, if he was being completely honest. "Well, why don't yo-"

Whatever Luffy had been about to ask was suddenly cut off as a ladder clacked against the outer wall and a young girl's head poked up over it. Grinning at both Luffy and Zoro as she held a finger up to her lip and pantomimed the need for silence, the newcomer hopped over the wall and approached the dangerous looking Zoro without a hint of fear.

"Hey mister, you must be hungry by now," the little girl smiled angelically, ignoring the death glare from Zoro. "I made you some rice balls as a thank you gift for helping us with that stupid marine's wolf! It's my first time trying to make them though, so I hope it's good."

"Look kid, I don't care what they are. You need to take them and scram!" Zoro raised his voice at the end in an attempt to scare off the child.

"Temper, temper, Zoro," an unpleasant, nasal voice cut into the conversation. Strolling over to the trio with an ugly smirk was a lanky, blond boy with an absolutely bizarre haircut flanked by a marine on both of his sides. Dismissing Luffy for the moment, he leered down at the restrained Zoro before snatching the food out of the little girl's hand. "Ah, rice balls? Well don't mind if I do," he taunted before taking a large bite out of one.

"Hey!" she yelled in outrage, "I made those for Zoro, not you! Give them back, meanie!"

Rather than respond, the blond boy began to hack and cough violently before spitting the food out of his mouth and turning on the girl with an incredulous expression. "These have sugar in them! You're supposed to use salt, stupid girl! Salt!"

"I… I thought they would be good if they were sweeter instead…" she trailed off with a frown and watery eyes.

As Luffy watched on with a frown, the uptight brat threw the remaining rice ball onto the ground with the portion he had spit out. Ignoring the girls shouts to stop, the blond ground both of them into the dirt beneath his shoe until they were little more than paste.

"No!" she sobbed harshly at watching her cooking be wasted so callously. "But I worked so hard on those…"

"Tch," he scoffed at the girl's sorrow, turning towards the nearest marine. "You there! Throw her out and over the wall!"

"But Sir!" the marine in question attempted to protest. "She's just a little girl!"

"You think I care about that?" his apparent superior cackled in response. "If you don't want to be reported to my father, you'll obey me without question.

Glancing over at his comrade for some advice but only getting a nervous shrug in response, the marine grit his teeth and approached the girl. "I'm so sorry about this," he murmured to her so that the cruel blond wouldn't hear. "I have to listen to him. Try to tuck yourself in and roll, I'll toss you gently. Okay?"

As the girl gave a shaky nod of understanding, the marine stood up and picked her up bridal style. Luckily for her, the man's 'throw' was more of a gentle toss that barely cleared the wall and had very little chance of inflicting actual injury.

Forgetting about exactly where he was, Zoro attempted to throw himself at the little shit and beat the smirk off of his face only to be caught by the ropes and grind to a halt. "Helmeppo… you're the worst type of person," the swordsman snarled in a murderous tone.

"Nuh uh Zoro," the newly dubbed Helmeppo waggle a finger admonishingly in his direction. "No trying to escape, you haven't forgotten our deal have you?"

Rage subsiding for the time being, Zoro shook his head quickly. "No, I haven't forgotten. One month here and you'll leave that kid and her family alone. You better not go back on your half of the bargain though!"

"Hahahaha!" Helmeppo burst out laughing at the statement. "But of course! All you have to do is survive for 10 more days and I'll let you all go. Do you really think I would break my word?"

A derisive snort was the only response to that question, and the blond sneered back before turning away and dismissing the swordsman for the time being. Observing Luffy for a few moments, realization suddenly bloomed across his face. "White hair, red eyes, you must be that bounty hunter the Lieutenant was talking about! Welcome to Shells Town, my name is Helmeppo! I am the son of the great Axe-Hand Morgan! I assume you are here to collect the bounty for Alvida, yes?"

"That's right," Luffy gave him an unimpressed once-over. The boy seemed like a bootlicker who couldn't accomplish anything without his daddy or a marine entourage. "That was quite impressive just now, stealing from a restrained man and having your subordinates handle a little girl for you."

Helmeppo was so unused to defiance of any kind that he managed to entirely miss the tone of disgust Luffy spoke with, and he nodded happily in response. "Why thank you! If you would follow me now, I can take you to my father. I know you probably don't want to spend more time around this piece of trash than you have to."

As the moron turned away and began to lead the way deeper into the base, Luffy made eye contact with Zoro and managed to have a quick wordless conversation just through his incredulous facial expression.

" _Is this guy an actual real person?"_ Luffy's face practically screamed. " _How can anybody be this dumb?"_

" _I know, right? It's incredible,"_ Zoro had to quickly disguise his amused snort as a coughing fit when Helmeppo turned around suspiciously at the noise.

"Are you coming or not?" the blond impatiently whined, tapping his foot on the ground repeatedly.

"Yeah, yeah, relax Helmeppo. There's no need to rush," Luffy sighed in exasperation before following along. If his son was any indication, dealing with Morgan was going to be incredibly tedious.

As Luffy, Helmeppo, and his marine escort exited the courtyard on their way deeper into the base, Zoro was left behind deep in thought.

"That man…" he murmured to himself, "he doesn't seem like the typical corrupt Marine sympathizer. There's almost an aura of suppressed violence around him. Things are going to get interesting very quickly."

His feral grin could have scared a Sea King.

Unseen and unheard over on a secluded portion of the wall surrounding the courtyard, Koby was feeling numb. This was how Marines acted? They had probably hurt that little girl for almost no reason! Unable to reconcile the previous scene with his mental image of fearless and dashing protectors of the weak, he scowled and jumped down into the yard. Making his way over to the tied up pirate hunter, he prepared himself for the worst.

He wanted to hear the full story, no matter how horrible. He could reserve his judgment for just a little longer.

* * *

"Wow. I've known quite a few self obsessed people in my time, but this seems just a _tad_ excessive," Luffy mumbled under his breath.

After following Helmeppo for a couple of minutes and reflecting any incoming noise away from his ears so that he wouldn't have to listen to the whiny piece of garbage for a single second longer than necessary, they had arrived at the roof of the base. He had been initially confused as to what the man could possibly be doing up here when the Captain should have had a base to run, but then he saw the hideous statue finish being raised by the surrounding marines and facepalmed hard enough to leave a brief mark. Reluctantly turning back on his hearing, Luffy was treated to the joys of suffering through Captain Morgan's pompous speech about how amazing he was and how perfectly the statue managed to capture his kingly demeanor.

"Now, who the hell are you?" Morgan growled, apparently the only setting his voice came in from what Luffy had heard so far. "I am the great Axe-Hand Morgan! I don't have time to talk with every adoring fan of mine on this island, I have a base to run!"

"Oh god no, there are two of them," Luffy groaned to himself just low enough to avoid anybody else hearing and potentially start a fight before getting his bounty money. "I'm not an adoring fan here to get an autograph," he raised his voice. "I'm the bounty hunter who caught Alvida of the Alvida pirates. The Lieutenant that I turned her over to said that I would need to talk to you in order to claim the 5,000,000 berries she was worth."

At the information that this scrawny looking kid had been the one to take down the fairly notorious pirate, Captain Morgan did a double take and looked at Luffy properly for the first time since he had arrived with Helmeppo. "Some tiny albino brat like you wants 5,000,000 berries? I don't think so! There's no proof that you did it and Alvida wasn't taken into custody all by ourselves without any help! You can always talk to your local Marines to report injustice if you think you're being treated unfairly though," the hulking man finished with a deep laugh.

Suddenly, a random marine came sprinting up to the group. "Sir! Somebody is attempting to free Roranoa Zoro downstairs!"

"Men! Follow me!" Morgan barked out before charging downstairs with the entire group of marines following him.

Luffy was left alone on the roof of the base, eye twitching, veins popping on his forehead, and staring straight ahead as the sounds of the men running slowly got further and further away. Clenching his hand into a tight fist, the air directly around it began to shimmer slightly just like when he had taken out Alvida. Rocketing forward with a shout, he punched the horrible statue a single time and the heavy stone shattered like cheap glass into hundreds of pieces. Whirling around and stalking towards the stairs with a snarl carved into his face, the goofy bounty hunter was gone. In its place now was a dangerous predator.

"Oh no you _fucking_ don't, Morgan."

* * *

By the time Luffy made his way back through the base, downstairs, and entered the courtyard where Zoro and Koby were located, both the pirate hunter and the pink haired boy were standing defiantly in front of a makeshift firing squad of rifles pointed at them by the marines under Captain Morgan's command. Koby was making some kind of dramatic speech about how the Marines were meant to stand for something more than this, justice, and some other crap while Morgan laughed and spouted some drivel about being the strongest around and might making right.

Luffy couldn't find it in himself to care. Now that it was clear that Captain Morgan would not give him his bounty money, there was no point in playing nice or dragging out this farce any longer.

"I was going to do this purely on principle anyways after getting the money for the bounty I turned in to you, but it appears I don't need to wait that long anymore," Luffy calmly said, freezing all of the action in the courtyard and becoming the center of attention. "You're a pathetic waste of space, _Captain_ Morgan. Being the biggest fish in your tiny, tiny pond for so long seems to have gone to your head and given you a falsely inflated sense of importance. I think it's just about time somebody showed you just how dangerous the world can be once you get out of the baby pool that you've been swimming in."

"Well, it looks like we have a third member of today's execution," Morgan bellowed in rage, turning red at the casual dismissal of his strength. "I am Axe-Hand Morgan! You will show me some respect! Men! Fire at this little brat on my command!" As the group of marines turned and aimed their rifles towards the white haired man, their leader sneered at the lack of response. "Too scared to even move in the face of death, huh? Who exactly is going to be showing me something then, boy? FIRE!"

Zoro could only watch on helplessly as the world seemed to slow to a crawl and the sharp retort of rifle fire filled the air. He should be there to help this stranger fight, not standing here waiting for the marines to turn on him once they finished. That damn Helmeppo had taken his swords though, and he wasn't bulletproof. Resigning himself to the inevitable, the proud man vowed to watch and not turn away from the execution. It was the least that the white haired man deserved.

"Who's going to show you? Me." Luffy's response was barely more than a whisper but it managed to cut through the rest of the sound in the yard with ease. To the shock of everybody but Koby watching, all of the bullets fired towards the bounty hunter failed to connect. Seeming to come into contact with a shimmering shield of some sort just above skin level on the white haired man, the projectiles were casually reflected back at the marines firing them. It took less than 5 seconds for all of the marines to be taken out by non-lethal bullet wounds as Luffy took care not to kill them or hit vital areas. Despite being a part of the oppression of Shells Town, the men had only been following orders. Plus Luffy didn't care for making a permanent enemy of the Marines so early by massacring an entire base worth of them.

The 'great' Captain Morgan could only watch on in shock as this kid made a mockery of his squad without even moving. Clenching his jaw tight, the giant of a man unclasped his jacket and tossed it to the side in order to move more freely in the coming fight. "I don't know how you did that to my men, but a civilian with no rank is still no match for me! I am a Captain of the Mari-"

Luffy didn't even let the pompous man finish as he exploded forward in a flurry of motion, blurring forward through the space between them and crushing a clenched fist into Morgan's stomach so hard that a miniature shockwave blew away the loose dirt around them in a 10 foot circle. The Marine Captain never even had time to react before his body bent nearly in half around the force of the blow and he rocketed backwards like a cannonball before crashing through a wall of the nearest building.

Placing both hands back into his pockets once more, Luffy casually strolled forward to where the fallen Captain lay on the ground with an impressed whistle. Multiple ribs were clearly broken, one leg was bent at an impossible angle, and the man was coughing up blood with every breath he took.

"Ah, I have to give you some credit after all I guess," Luffy grinned brightly down at the murderous expression on the crippled man's face. "You're a lot more durable than the average small fry marine! I got worried for a second there when I hit you that I misjudged how much you could take. Didn't want to accidentally tear you in half if I went overboard."

"Y-you… bast-" Morgan struggled to choke out before subsiding with another bloody coughing fit and slumping into the sweet embrace of unconsciousness..

"Now," Luffy continued as though the brief interruption had never happened, grabbing the disgraced man by the hair and dragging him back towards the injured marines who were slowly picking themselves back together. "As you probably can already tell, your days of abusing your authority here are over. You shouldn't die from these injuries, so have fun enjoying the rest of your days in prison!"

The mostly recovered marines watched the bounty hunter who had liberated them from the tyrannical Captain Morgan in complete silence for a few moments before breaking out into cheers and laughter. Somehow forgetting about their various injuries for now, the men danced around and began to plan a party to celebrate while Luffy looked on with a grin.

"Alright, time to go find a restaurant and eat! No fruit this time, I want real meat!" Luffy loudly exclaimed before turning away and leaving the marines to their celebration. As he left the base and meandered back to town in search of food, he was aware of the thoughtful gaze trailing him from the green haired swordsman. Grinning to himself, Luffy idly wondered how long it would take for Zoro to approach him. He recognized the drive in the man's eyes, it was strikingly similar to his own. Maybe he had even found his first crewmate. Only time would tell.

* * *

Word managed to spread almost impossibly quick in such a small town of their newfound freedom, and when Luffy finally decided on a restaurant to eat in he had been delighted to hear that the food would be free. That delight had died off somewhat as he attempted to eat and had been repeatedly interrupted from his food by civilian after civilian coming up to him and introducing themselves before thanking him.

"I just want to enjoy my meat in peace," Luffy pouted around a mouthful of delicious food after the latest interruption left. "Why can't they just leave me alone? Morgan was weak anyways."

"Not a fan of all the attention?" Zoro's gruff voice caught his attention as the man in question approached Luffy's table and sat down quietly. The swordsman still looked like death warmed over, but at least he was free now. Additionally, he seemed to have received his weapons back if the three blades hanging at his side were any indication.

"Nah. They keep calling me a hero. I'm no hero. Three swords?" Luffy randomly swapped topics out of the blue with a nod towards the interesting weapons, never stopping his veritable feast.

"I use Santoryu, Nitoryu, and Ittoryu," Zoro quickly explained with a proud smile tilting the corners of his mouth upwards. "I would say I'm at my best with three blades though. I'm more interested in how you fight, though. I've never seen anything like that before, reflecting bullets or demolishing a Marine Captain with a single punch. How did you do it? Can you possibly teach me?"

"No," Luffy quickly and bluntly dashed the pirate hunter's hopes with a laugh at the disappointed expression. "It's not something I can teach. And sorry, but I can't just tell anybody who asks about what I can do or how I do it. That's valuable information, you know? Only someone close to me that I trust can be told that stuff. Like a crewmate! Shishishishi!"

"You have a crew?" Zoro asked, surprised. "Why aren't they around to help you out with Morgan? Not that you needed any real help," he quickly amended at the incredulous look from the white haired man.

"Nah, I don't have a crew yet. I want to build one though so that they can help me achieve my dream and I can help them achieve theirs," Luffy responded simply with a hopeful smile. "Want to be the first?"

"Your dream, huh?" Zoro murmured, memories of Kuina flashing before his eyes. "I've got one of those too. I'm going to become the greatest swordsman in the entire world. I swore a vow to achieve it or die trying. Do you think that's something that you can support me in?"

"Of course," Luffy waved a hand nonchalantly as if offended by the notion of Zoro's dream being impossible. "It would be only fitting, huh? That the greatest swordsman in the world is part of the strongest man in the world's crew?"

In spite of himself, Zoro couldn't help the deadly grin that crept onto his face at the response. It seemed like the two of them were far more alike than he had suspected. "One thing before I accept though. I will always follow my ambition. If you do anything that would cause me to abandon my ambitions…" the proud man trailed off for a moment, sounding more serious than Luffy had ever seen from him so far. "You will end your life on my sword!"

"Shishishishi! I wouldn't expect anything different from someone with a drive like mine to become the best!" Luffy laughed happily at the menacing threat. "So you'll join me then?"

"Yes, Captain!" Zoro declared, satisfied with Luffy's understanding of his goals.

Luffy jumped up from the table and began to do a silly dance in circles, chanting to himself the entire time. "I got my first comrade! I got my first comrade!"

"What kind of bipolar idiot…" Zoro could only watch in disbelief as the bounty hunter's mood switched from serious to goofy in the blink of an eye. His new captain was certainly a strange man, to say the very least.

Suddenly the jovial mood in the bar was replaced with an uneasy uncertainty as the door swung wide open and serious looking marine with tanned skin and well groomed facial hair approached the duo.

"Hello, I am Commander Ripper," the stern sounding man introduced himself. "I have taken over the operation of this town's Marine Base for the time being until Headquarters can send a new Captain over and take Morgan into custody. I wish to offer you my sincere thanks for doing what none of us were able to do in taking him down." With that said, he whistled sharply and another marine entered the building with a large brown sack in his had with a berry sign printed on the side. "This is the 5,000,000 berries you earned for capturing and turning in Alvida. Your companion Koby explained the entire situation to me as well as his intention of enlisting in our ranks and was accepted in as a chore boy. Please feel free to remain in Shells Town for as long as you would like before setting out again."

As the two marines turned away and left the building, Zoro stood up and stretched before addressing Luffy. "Well I'm ready to head out to sea whenever you are, want to go now?"

"Nah," Luffy reached over and flicked the swordsman on the nose with a grin. "You still look like garbage and you haven't recovered from your captivity to the Marines yet. Sit down, eat some food, and relax. We can stay here another day, you heard the good Commander. There's no massive rush, what harm could waiting twenty-four hours do?"

Unable to argue with that logic, Zoro reluctantly sat down across from his new Captain with a growling stomach at the piles of food on the table. He hadn't realized just how hungry he was until now. As he dug into the delicious meal with happy groans of appreciation for the quality of the cooking, the pirate hunter couldn't help grinning.

"I just realized I haven't introduced myself to you yet. My name is Roranoa Zoro."

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy!"

"How in the world do you fit that much food into such a small body, Luffy?"

"It's a mysterious power!"

Zoro groaned in exasperation at the stupid answer, but was internally optimistic about the future. It was time to start getting actively stronger again. He had spent too long peaked at his current skill level with how weak the majority of the pirates he encountered were. Hopefully traveling with Luffy would bring some good battles.

Sitting around relaxing and eating, Zoro had no clue at that moment just how right he would end up being.

* * *

 **A/N: Since I've already received 2 reviews and a private message concerned about my ability to write decent One Piece fanfiction considering my lack of knowledge about it, I wanted to clarify. I HAVE read a decent amount of the manga up to finishing Impel Down when I stopped. Additionally, when I say I've read fanfiction of it, I don't mean I read a single story and decided to start writing. I'm pretty confident in saying I've read over 30 stories at the top of the One Piece fanfiction section when rated by most reviews. I have a very solid grasp of everything in the main story up to the end of the Marineford War, so when I say to be gentle with my mistakes I'm talking about minor stuff. Not something like forgetting an entire story arc or missing a crewmember. I also make EXTENSIVE use of the One Piece Wiki, so I'm not going to absolutely butcher the story, I promise! Sorry about the confusion, I should have elaborated further in my initial A/N last chapter.**

 **L** **et me know if you would all prefer longer chapters around this length going forward or if it's too daunting to see a 12,000 word chapter and you'd prefer it cut to about half of that. I'm more than willing to experiment if the majority of people seem to want slightly shorter chapters. Currently I'm planning on Orange Town, Syrup Island, Baratie, Cocoyashi, and Loguetown all getting their own chapters. They may not be quite this length since I combined Alvida and Shells Town into one here, but we'll see. Updates will be relatively quick for now until we reach the Grand Line just because I have everything up until that point more or less completely planned out. Afterwards I'll likely take a short break from writing until I have the outline for the next few arcs planned as well.**

 **Sorry about any grammatical/spelling/tense errors I may have missed while editing this. I'm not great at it, and I don't have a beta right now so I hve to make do. Not entirely sure when/when not to capitalize Marine so I've been just going with capital Marine when referring to the organization itself and lowercase marine when talking about the actual individuals/groups of people themselves.**


	3. East Blue: Orange Town

V For Vectors

 **Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or To Aru Majutsu No Index. Nothing you recognize from any other works of fiction belong to me in any way, shape, or form. I am not profiting off of this story in any way and write for fun only.**

 **A/N: So a review brought up a good point that I had not considered. For those of you who have no knowledge of To Aru, you still don't know exactly how Luffy's abilities will work and that makes it hard to know if you'll enjoy reading this story. That's my mistake, and will be corrected in this chapter's beginning! As for questions about the future concerning major plot points or crew, I won't be answering, sorry. Read to find out! The one thing I will say is that for people who are disappointed about Luffy/crew not being pirates, that can change. Bounty hunters are as far as I know not officially sanctioned by the Marines or World Government like the Shichibukai. So crimes committed in the past/future have the chance of putting them in opposition against Marines/WG and giving them a bounty on their head, forcing them into pirate status. It is something I have already considered doing, but have not made an actual decision on yet. Additionally, Luffy is only a bounty hunter because he promised Garp and wants to fight strong people. He is not money obsessed and in the case of someone innocent of the crimes they are accused of (hint hint) he might want to fight them anyways but he has his own sense of justice. He isn't just a mindless Marine sympathizer who will turn over anybody that they want without thought.**

 **Edited 10/16/2018 - Fixed a few grammatical and spelling errors that were bugging me and added a minor use of Luffy's powers that I initially forgot to include.**

 **Edited 10/18/2018 - Corrected Syrup Island to Gecko Island. Completely forgot that it's Syrup Village - Gecko Island, not the other way around.**

* * *

"Hey, Captain… you don't look so good. Are you completely sure you don't want to get some sleep for a while?"

"NO I DO NOT WANT TO GET SOME SLEEP, ZORO!" Luffy yelled in a hoarse voice at his companion with veins popping out on his forehead. The white haired man had certainly seen better days, his eyes were bloodshot, his complexion was even paler than usual, and his stomach wouldn't stop growling. This was all due to the fact that he was sleep deprived at the moment due to his swordsman's absolutely ungodly lack of navigational prowess.

"If you say so," Zoro responded skeptically to the swaying bounty hunter. "I think I could do it right this time, though."

"No. I don't know how in the world you managed to get us so completely lost during my first nap, but it won't be happening again!" Luffy snapped back at the unperturbed man with a tic forming over his eye.

One of the civilians back in Shells Town had been kind enough to give the duo a map of the East Blue when Luffy had asked for one as well as a compass. They had eventually decided on the route they would take on their way to the Grand Line starting with the next closest place to resupply being Orange Town. They would then make a stop at Gecko Island before heading to Loguetown. However, just under a day out to sea Luffy had made a horrible mistake.

He had decided to take a nap for a couple hours, handing the compass, map, and navigation duties over to Zoro for the time being.

Somehow, some way, when Luffy had woken up they were travelling in the exact _opposite_ direction of where they needed to go and presumably had been for hours. Once Luffy realized what had happened, he had adamantly refused to hand over the reins again which led to his current situation as he was unable to sleep for fear of Zoro screwing up again. As it was he was having difficulty judging their position with what little naval information Garp had managed to cram into his skull during their crash course training all those years ago.

"Well I'm not too good at following directions with all that fancy, complicated stuff you gave me. I just locked onto a funny shaped cloud in the same direction we were going and followed that for a while until it disappeared for some reason," was Zoro's casual response, not managing to see the glaring hole in his logic.

" _Clouds can change directions you moron!"_ Luffy shrieked at the idiotic statement before trying to strangle the man while shouting obscenities. Luckily for Zoro, Luffy was barely keeping his eyes open and was about as effective as a small child in his efforts. The sheer repertoire of the white haired man's insults was rather impressive though.

"Okay, well we need keep you occupied for now so that you don't fall asleep again," the swordsman suggested in a rather reasonable tone once Luffy managed to calm down slightly and stop trying to kill him. "Talking would help, right?"

Luffy warily nodded, acknowledging the idea as smart. "Okay, do you have something in mind?"

"Why not explain your Devil Fruit powers to me now?" Zoro asked after thinking about possible discussion topics for a moment. Cloud watching had come to mind for a brief second before being shoved down. Luffy was oddly upset by clouds for some reason that eluded the green haired man currently. "We're crewmates now, so are you comfortable telling me?"

"Sure!" Luffy seemed to cheer up at the thought of being able to finally tell someone other than Garp about how cool he was. "So how much do you know about Devil Fruit already?"

"Not much, only that there are a couple different types, only one copy exists at a time, and you can't swim with one."

"Alright," Luffy rubbed his hands together eagerly at the prospect of taking on a student and getting to impart his wisdom upon him. "So there are three main types of Devil Fruit. The first and by far the most rare are Logia class fruit. These allow the user to transform themselves into a specific element like Fire, Lightning, or even Darkness. Without a seastone weapon or the specific elemental weakness like water beating fire, you won't even be able to touch them because their body will just transform into their element and then reform like normal afterwards. Then you have Zoan class, which allow the user to transform themselves into an animal or animal hybrid with all the benefits and negative aspects of those animals. A turtle Zoan might become super slow, but they would get a crazy strong defense with it. Finally, the last class is Paramecia, the most common. Paramecia is kind of a catch-all class for any ability that doesn't neatly fit into the other two. Some will give you abilities like causing earthquakes or being able to levitate stuff, others can change certain aspects of your body like being able to shapeshift or being made out of blades, and some can let you create and manipulate certain substances like wax but don't allow you to turn your body into that substance."

Zoro slowly nodded to show his understanding as he slowly digested the information and stored it in his mind. "So what class is yours, and what does it do? Wait, it's reflecting stuff, right?"

"No," Luffy grinned proudly. "My particular ability is far more powerful than just being able to reflect some stuff. I ate the Vector-Vector Fruit! It's a Paramecia class that gives me the power to manipulate vectors!"

"Wow. That's…" Zoro trailed off with a speculative look on his face. "Super boring. Also kinda lame. Why couldn't you have something cool like causing earthquakes? Or flying?"

"IT'S NOT LAME OR BORING YOU DAMN IDIOT! IT'S DEFINITELY COOLER THAN SWINGING AROUND SOME STUPID SWORDS! ANYBODY CAN DO THAT!" Luffy slammed his forehead into Zoro's as he yelled, sparks flying between the two as they growled at each other.

"My swordsmanship is not stupid!" Zoro quickly fired back with a return headbutt. "It takes years of training, precision, and strength! All you had to do was eat a dumb fruit!"

"Training in using Devil Fruit powers can take years of creativity too," Luffy corrected with a frown after both of them calmed down again. "I've had mine for almost a decade now and I sometimes feel like I'm still just scratching the surface of what it can really accomplish. I would argue that with enough creativity and practice, my Vector-Vector Fruit is easily in the top tier of Paramecia class abilities."

"Well maybe I'm just not creative then," the swordsman sighed in exasperation. "I'm not really seeing what is so special about doing some math and changing flight paths of stuff people throw at you."

"Alright, let me put it another way then." Luffy was silent for a few moments as he considered the best way to explain it to someone without first hand experience in the versatility of his powers. "Think of it like this. Vectors are a part of literally everything that can move. A sword, a bullet, people, sound, _everything_. And I can change those movements as long as whatever it is gets within a centimeter or so of me and I understand what the motion in question is. You try to punch me, I redirect the movement of your wrist back on itself at the moment of contact and your wrist breaks. Someone fires a bullet towards me, just before it hits me I can reflect it away in any direction I choose. I can force my body beyond natural limits by acting on my own vectors, hitting harder or travelling faster when I move. If I throw something as simple as a rock, I can accelerate it to lethal speeds. Also, once I've interacted with a vector for long enough or enough times, my powers will be able to manipulate and reflect that particular action without me even having to think about it. Kinda like an immune system destroying viruses in your body even though you don't tell it to. Luckily for the people I like, I'm able to subconsciously determine whether an approaching object is an actual threat or not so I don't hurt someone just trying to shake my hand."

By the end of Luffy's passionate speech explaining the numerous ways his Devil Fruit powers can be used, Zoro's eyes were practically bulging out of his sockets. "What in the world… okay maybe it's not super lame. It has to have some kind of weakness, right?"

"Yeah, everything does," Luffy pouted. Of course Zoro wouldn't just take a minute to be awed and treat him like a god. "The first and most obvious is that I have to be crazy close to whatever I'm messing with. I can't just look at someone across a room and break their arm or something like that. Next, with enough force I can be overwhelmed and whatever it is can just break on through without me being able to do anything about it. My grandpa is insanely strong, for example, and could probably still beat my ass with a single punch if I let him get close and he's really trying. Another one is that I need to understand a vector before being able to change it. Punches, kicks, bullets, someone throwing something, that kind of stuff is easy. But an ability I've never seen before or don't understand I can't do anything about until I _do_ understand it. It's why at the very beginning of a fight I'll usually be on the defensive until I have a basic grasp of their fighting style unless I'm confident that my opponent isn't in my league. Plus the usual Devil Fruit weaknesses of sea water and seastone."

"Such close range is a pretty big hole in your offense, what do you do about enemies fighting you at range? There's no way to train in order to increase the distance?" Zoro's eyes were unfocused as he considered how to fight against someone with abilities like these. Trying to end it in a single surprise strike at the beginning would probably be the easiest method.

"Well… kinda? Maybe?" Luffy shrugged with a disappointed expression on his face. "It's always been a goal of mine to extend the range to cover up arguably my biggest weakness but nothing I do seems to really improve it. The best I can do is temporarily expand the field by a few feet but for some reason it drains me like crazy. Just doing it for more than a couple of seconds will leave me out of energy like I just ran a marathon. I don't really understand why, conceptually it doesn't seem like that much of a difference."

"Hmmm," Zoro stroked his chin thoughtfully while screwing his eyes up in concentration. "So what you're saying is… it's a mysterious power!"

"..." Luffy looked at the swordsman blankly for a very long time. "Is that really what I sound like? Also, don't do that again. That's _my_ thing damnit!"

"It is pretty fun to do," Zoro agreed mildly with a smile. "Is there anything else important to know about your vector abilities though?"

"I can reflect sound-waves away from my ears to block out noises, although I really need to stop doing it unconsciously to make my naps better. Makes me pretty vulnerable when I'm asleep and can't hear someone coming or explosions and stuff," Luffy's sheepish smile covered his face.

"Why in the world would you ever need an ability like that and go out of your way in order to train it enough to use while asleep?" Zoro deadpanned in an incredulous tone.

"My grandpa can yell _really_ loudly," Luffy nodded in a sage-like manner.

"..." Zoro just stared at his captain for a few moments before shaking his head. "I'm not even going to ask. Anything _else_?"

"Eh, not really. Maybe in the future I'll be able to develop my powers further through training, but for now that's mostly it. Oh, and I guess one last thing is that I have to consciously choose to turn off my automatic redirecting for natural vectors like sunlight or wind. It's why I look so pale and have white hair, I have to be actively thinking about letting the rays from the sun hit me for it to happen. Kinda like having to consciously think about breathing every second of every day. It's too annoying to bother with most of the time, I'm just okay with looking weird," Luffy finished explaining for the moment with an offhanded shrug. It was a bit annoying to not be able to feel a sea breeze or the warmth of the sun on his face without actively thinking about it, but that was a relatively small downside.

"Alright that seems a little less ridiculous now, but I still have a question. Why do you think it's so important to hide what you can do as something less powerful like reflecting or barriers or whatever?" Zoro yawned lazily and stared up at the sky while waiting for an answer.

 _Cold blooded murder._

 _White hot rage._

 _Sweet revenge._

 _Terrifying chase._

 _The aftermath..._

Unseen by the swordsman, Luffy winced momentarily at the memories that particular question evoked before hiding it quickly in hopes that his new crewmate had not noticed.

The Goa Incident.

He had gotten extremely lucky back then and probably shouldn't have survived. Only pure coincidence and the fact that his newfound powers had slowly warped his looks into a drastic change from his old appearance had allowed him to remain free and without a bounty on his head. There was nobody still alive who could tie Luffy to that day. The only potential loose end was the slim possibility that someone he had not been aware of had seen him use his Devil Fruit powers. If that was the case, hiding under the impression of having a less impressive power would help keep him under the radar until he was strong enough to defend himself from any challengers.

Luffy had no intention of changing that just yet.

"Ah, well it's actually because I'm not strong enough yet. Sure, I'm going to become the strongest in the world some day, but I'm not there yet. For now, the less people know about how to counter or plan for my Devil Fruit powers the better, right?" Luffy felt slimy as the lie slipped from his mouth so easily. Despite having only met a few days ago, Zoro was now a member of his crew. Didn't he deserve the truth?

As Zoro hummed and seemingly accepted the false reasoning, they both lapsed back into silence once more and for a long time there was nothing but the soft splashing of the waves and the sea breeze whistling through the air. Luckily the relatively short conversation had done the trick for Luffy's exhaustion, he had far too much to think about now to even consider falling asleep.

"Once I gather a crew, I'll tell them all." Luffy vowed to himself softly enough that the now snoozing Zoro would not wake up and hear. "Then they'll decide whether they wish to keep sailing with me."

It would have to be enough to satisfy his guilty conscience for now.

* * *

"Seagulls! Can you hear that Zoro! There are seagulls!" Luffy cackled maniacally as he pounced on the sleeping pirate hunter and violently shook him awake. Unfortunately for the excited bounty hunter, Zoro had a rather instinctual response of trying to punch his attacker and the clenched fist sent Luffy crashing back into the mast of the boat face-first.

"Captain… you don't look so good." Zoro yawned as he slowly stood up and stretched, popping his back loudly.

"Maybe because you punched me," Luffy mumbled around his now comically swollen jaw, trying and failing to stand up as he wobbled around like a drunk.

"Not exactly what I meant," the green haired man trailed off with a worried once-over of his captain. He wasn't exactly sure how long his rest had lasted, but Luffy apparently still hadn't slept yet. He was slurring his words together slightly and his eyes were far too wide as though forcing them was the only way to keep them open. "You look kinda crazy right now, I really think you need to get some sleep."

"Sleep?" Luffy sounded incredulous at the interruption and his furious hand motions didn't help with the image of seeming insane. "How can I sleep when we can hear seagulls?"

"You're currently freaking out over being able to hear birds," Zoro deadpanned with one raised eyebrow. "You need to sleep before you collapse."

"No! Where do seagulls live?" Luffy asked rhetorically before answering immediately and cutting the swordsman off. "Nests! Nests are up in trees, not floating on top of water. We're near land! We can make it to land first and _then_ I can sleep soundly knowing we won't get so lost that we die starving at sea!"

"I'm not _that_ bad god damnit!" Zoro immediately got up in the white haired man's face with a tic pulsing over his eye. It was incredibly frustrating to try and get through Luffy's thick skull. "At least I know how to take care of myself! You were so concerned with making sure I was on the right path to getting healthy again at Shells Town before we set out to sea, why can't I be concerned about you too? You look like you're gonna pass out any second now! What if we run into bandits or something on this island?"

"I…" Luffy suddenly seemed so very tired. He couldn't argue with that logic, and he wasn't sure that he even wanted to. Sleep sounded so nice right now, and Zoro was just trying to look out for him. Seeing an oddly convenient harbor appear just over the horizon, he laughed and brightened up slightly. "Okay, fine. Look, there's a harbor right there. Going by the heading I've kept us on, it's probably Orange Town and we're back on schedule. Once we arrive I'll get some rest, okay?"

"Fine," Zoro scowled at him but it was difficult to stay mad at the wounded puppy eyes that Luffy was directing at him full force. "Jeez, just a couple days of knowing you and you're giving me headaches already."

At the swordsman's admission, Luffy got a sly look in his eyes before leaping to his feet and doing a stupid looking victory dance in circles around the green haired man. "Zoro really cares about me, such a great comrade! Who would have thought you had such a fluffy interior underneath those menacing looks! Shishishishi!"

"HOW DO YOU HAVE THIS MUCH ENERGY AFTER NOT SLEEPING FOR DAYS?" Zoro shouted with a vein pulsing on his forehead at the idea of having a soft side. He was a badass pirate hunter, not some damn mother hen! "If you've got enough energy for dancing you have enough energy to start rowing to shore."

The change was immediate as Luffy's silly dancing stopped and he flopped over with exaggerated groans holding his head. "Oh no, I'm suddenly so exhausted and weak. I couldn't possibly do any physical work until I'm fully rested again!"

"I'm not falling for it, get rowing damnit!" Zoro deadpanned at the terrible acting. The white haired man's capricious mood shifts seemed to be even worse than usual while sleep deprived, and it was giving him a major headache dealing with them.

"Pffft, spoilsport," Luffy pouted and stuck his tongue out in Zoro's direction. Stumbling over to the set of oars at the front of the boat, he rested one hand on both and they started moving on their own without anything but the contact with Luffy.

As the boat steadily propelled itself in the direction of the nearby town harbor, Zoro started twitching at the sight with his hands clenching over and over.

" _You could have sped us up with this at any time?!"_

"Yeah, I must have forgotten since I'm so tired! I only remembered now cause I don't want to do the work! Shishishishi!"

Zoro's scream of rage could be heard all the way back in Shells Town.

* * *

"Meeeeat…" Luffy mumbled in his sleep between loud snores, rolling over onto his stomach as Zoro kept watch from the roof of the home they were currently inhabiting

The duo's entry into town had been an oddly simple and quiet affair, and the reason for that had become immediately apparent once they left their boat. Orange Town appeared to be completely deserted as far as they could tell. It was an eerie feeling to walk through the empty streets with no sounds except the echo of their footsteps to keep them company, but Luffy just hadn't possessed the energy to try and solve the mystery of the ghost town before a long nap.

So without any citizens to tell them no, the bounty hunter and his first crewmate had selected an opulent looking house at random and broken in through a ground floor window. Making his way up to a bedroom on the second floor with the last of his energy, Luffy's eyes had practically rolled back into his skull the moment his head touched the pillow and he was out like a light.

Zoro had been tempted to take the opportunity to explore Orange Town further and potentially solve the mystery of where everybody had gone but had eventually decided not to. With just how sleep deprived Luffy was, there was a decent chance of him not waking up regardless of what went on around him for at least 12 hours or so. During that time the white haired man would be incredibly vulnerable, and Zoro didn't know enough about his Devil Fruit abilities to place a confident bet on Luffy being able to defend himself in his sleep if trouble arose.

So now he waited, sitting up on the roof of the building for the past 5 hours in his silent vigil.

"...-elling you guys, I know what I saw!"

Zoro shot up to his feet, suddenly alert and free from the almost meditative trance he had fallen into at the sound of a barely audible voice approaching their location.

"Maybe you just had too much rum," replied another voice that sounded incredibly dubious. "We've been looking around for your mystery people for nearly an hour now and haven't found anything. Everybody knows better than to try and come back to town after what the Boss did to that Boodle guy."

"Yeah, can we stop wasting time here?" chimed in a third voice. "We're missing the party back with the rest of the crew. Who cares if a couple of people are hiding in town, anyways? The civilians have no chance against us."

"Come on, listen to the voice of reason and go away…" Zoro growled to himself under his breath, clenching his fists tightly together. It seemed that the mystery of Orange Town was a rather simple one. Pirates. While the swordsman didn't doubt his ability to take down a couple of small fry, the news of a potentially large crew could be dangerous. There were only so many people he could fight at once, after all.

"Okay, I guess we can j-"

"Guys! Guys!" voice number 4 joined the others with the sound of footsteps pounding against pavement as he ran up to the small group. The pirates were worryingly close to Zoro and Luffy's house at this point given how loud their voices were starting to get. "There's a boat in the harbor right now! He was right, there are some new people here in town!"

"Damnit," Zoro swore softly under his breath only to freeze as a rumbling growl came back in response from below.

"Hey, I think Richie can hear something!" one of the excited men shouted from down on street level. "Go get 'em boy!"

As a bizarrely dressed group of 3 pirates chasing after a man riding a lion came tearing around the corner and caught sight of the green haired man up on top of the house, Zoro just groaned in exasperation. "How bad can my luck possibly be?"

"Hey you! Don't you know know that this town belongs to Captain Buggy now?" the man on top of the lion shook a fist in the direction of the house Zoro was standing on. "Give us everything you have on you, and we'll let you go without a beating!"

Zoro just tilted his head slightly to the side. "What's with that dumb hat?"

"That's so rude!" the man in question exclaimed, eyes now watering. "It's just how my hair looks naturally, you jerk!"

"Mohji quit wasting time talking to him," the pirate beside the now dramatically crying man drawled in an annoyed tone. This one was riding a unicycle of all things as he wheeled back and forth slowly to keep from toppling over, hand resting gently over a sword hilt sheathed at his side. "We'll take care of this quickly and go on back to the rest of the crew before those idiots manage to go through all of the rum while we're gone."

In spite of the potentially dire situation of him and his unconscious captain being found by a hostile pirate crew, Zoro couldn't help the grin that spread wide across his face as he slid down the slanted tiles of the roof and jumped down to the ground across the street from them. "A blade, huh? Are you a swordsman?"

"Tch, I may use a sword but I'm nothing so ordinary as that," the unicycle riding man flipped his hair dramatically off to one side. "I am Cabaji the Acrobat, and I am a _performer_!" the flamboyant man drew the blade with a flourish and struck a dramatic pose on the unicycle.

"...yeah whatever," Zoro grunted uninterested in the any of the rest of the quick introduction after hearing he was a swordsman of some type. Drawing all three of his blades in a fluid, practiced motion, the green haired man took the usual starting stance of his Santoryu. "My name is Roronoa Zoro, the pirate hunter. I am going to be the greatest swordsman in the world one day, and the best way to get there is defeat the rest. Fight me and show me your strength, Cabaji the Acrobat!"

Cabaji turned to Mohji and gave a slow, serious nod before wheeling forward in Zoro's direction. The pirate hunter focused in like a laser on the performer, mentally preparing himself for the upcoming clash between him and the othe-

Suddenly a whip crashed into his face from the side, knocking him off balance and giving Cabaji the chance to wheel forward in a flash and cut a gash into Zoro's side as he passed by. Jumping away from the pirate duo and making some space for himself, Zoro glared murderously over at the now smirking Mohji. "What do you think you're doing? Don't interfere in a duel between swordsmen!"

The pair of pirates burst out laughing. "I already told you, I'm not something as stupid as a swordsman regardless of what weapon I use! If we take down the infamous Pirate Hunter Zoro, our names will be famous around these parts. All that matters is winning! Now, you two." Cabaji gestured to the remaining two pirates who had not gotten involved yet. "Get back to camp and grab Captain Buggy. He's going to want to make a flashy example of this fool once we're done with him."

"You cowards," Zoro growled as the men ran off so quickly that dust clouds were left behind. "I'll beat your entire crew myself if I have to. I won't lose to someone with no honor like you two."

This just prompted more laughter from the pair as they readied their respective weapons and Richie prowled forward. "Even if by some miracle you beat both of us, our Captain could never lose to you! No swordsman in the entire world could beat him!" Mohji declared with supreme confidence.

"We'll just have to see about that," Zoro responded simply before storming forward at the man with a vicious flurry of his blades. Ducking under a swiping paw from Richie, he was still forced to back off before managing to strike Mohji by a stream of flames spat at him by Cabaji.

 _Damnit,_ Zoro mentally swore as he was forced into just trying to defend himself for now in the face of all three opponents ganging up on him. _I can't fight them like this, there's no time for me to attack if they all cover each other's openings._

"Not so tough now, are you?" Cabaji grinned. "Nobody can stand up against the might of both officers of the Buggy Pirates at once!"

"You're nothing but a disgrace to anybody who wields a sword," Zoro spat back, nearly managing to slash into the man's sword arm before once again being prevented from connecting by Richie's interference.

"As long as we win, who cares what you think?" Mohji cackled from his position on the outskirts of the fight, keeping Zoro off balance with carefully aimed cracks of his whip.

The next few minutes were a blur of furious motion as the fight continued at the breakneck pace, none of the coordinated pirates giving Zoro a chance to catch his breath between their dirty tricks, sneak attacks, and taunting. Despite steadily receiving more and more small wounds that began to take their toll on him as they added up, he had yet to deal a significant amount of damage back to any one of his opponents. Additionally, Cabaji was successfully getting him with those stupid tricks of his over and over. Breathing fire, blinding him with clouds of dust, riding up the walls and crashing down at him from weird angles, and even swarms of exploding tops. The sheer surprise factor of the acrobats moves combined with either having to dodge Mohji's whip or Richie's paws prevented him from effectively fighting back.

 _Something needs to change right now,_ Zoro thought before letting out a pained grunt as one of Richie's paws connected with his ribs and sent him crashing back into a wall behind him. _I'm going to lose at this rate._

"Nice hit, Richie!" Mohji cheered loudly as Zoro shakily stood up, swaying from side to side. Cracking his whip in the pirate hunter's direction once more to take advantage of the man's dizziness, his eyes gleamed. "We've almost got him!"

"Gotcha," Zoro's smile was feral as he raised his hand in the way of the blow and tightly gripped the whip, fake dizziness gone in a flash.

"Mohji, look out!" Cabaji cried with wide eyes as he recognized what was about to happen, but it was too late to stop it.

Zoro roared with triumph as he yanked back on the leather whip as hard as he could manage and the beast tamer was dragged into his range for the first time during the formerly lopsided fight. " **Oni Giri**!" the swordsman cried out before slashing diagonally through the pirate's chest with the katanas in either hand and horizontally with Wado Ichimonji in his mouth.

There was a moment of absolute stillness in the street before Mohji collapsed to the ground, blood spraying through the air from the severe wounds.

"One down."

"Mohji, no!" Cabaji yelled at the top of his lungs while Richie charged the pirate hunter with a bellow. "You'll pay for that!"

Momentarily defying physics and wheeling directly up the nearby wall on his unicycle, Cabaji propelled himself off of it and towards the green haired man at great speed. His sword positioned to skewer Zoro as he fell, a wide grin spread across the acrobat's face before turning into one of confusion as his target spoke.

"No dirty tricks to keep me from stopping this one," Zoro muttered, easily avoiding the berserker charge from Richie before turning his attention towards the incoming performer. Assuming a familiar stance, he placed the swords from both hands over the blade in his mouth and swung downwards in a forward slash at Cabaji who was moving far too fast to dodge. " **Tora Gari**!"

"Gah!" Cabaji groaned in pain as the powerful Santoryu technique shattered his inferior blade and cut deeply into him, knocking him to the ground and breaking his unicycle.

"Two down," Zoro panted slightly, turning towards the now cowering lion behind him. "Still feel like fighting?"

"Richie might not, but I sure as hell do after seeing what you did to my crewmembers, you flashy bastard!" a brand new voice chimed in from behind the bounty hunter.

Turning around in surprise, Zoro came face to face with at least 25 men armed to the teeth with various knives, swords, and guns all standing behind what looked to be a clown wearing an extravagant outfit and a full face of make-up.

They also had a cannon with them.

"Well shit," Zoro cursed.

"Yeah, something like that," the clown agreed with a wide smile that looked incredibly unfriendly.

Ignoring his body's aching protests for the moment, Zoro slowly assumed his base Santoryu stance once more and forced himself to stand up straight. Rolling his shoulder experimentally, he frowned at the lack of his usual range of motion but prepared to fight regardless. "I don't know who you are, but I won't allow you to stand in my way."

"What do you mean you don't know who I am?" the clown yelled, a tic mark appearing over his eye in disbelief. "I'm Captain Buggy of the Buggy Pirates! Scourge of the East Blue, previous member of the Pirate King's crew, worth 15,000,000 berries! There's no way you really haven't heard of me before!"

"Tch, none of that means anything to me," Zoro snorted. "I don't care what you've done in the past or who you sailed with or what your bounty is. I can't stop until I'm the greatest swordsman, and that means getting past the small fry like you at the starting line. Either talk, or fight. Don't waste time trying to do both."

"First that orange haired girl stealing our map and now you…" Buggy seethed, flexing his hands over and over. "I'm tired of bugs like you defying me! I am legendary! I am out of your league! And I can prove it to you as well…"

With that said, Buggy took a single step forward and spread his arms out wide to both sides leaving himself completely open to an attack. A wicked smirk spread across the pirate captain's face at the chanting from his crew behind him that slowly grew in volume until it was loud enough to rattle the cobblestone road.

" _Buggy! Buggy! Buggy! Buggy!"_

"I'll even give you a free shot at me," the arrogant clown laughed as though the mere idea of Zoro being able to hurt him was completely ridiculous. "So why don't you show me your strength so I can crush it!"

Gritting his teeth at the complete disrespect the pirate was showing towards his swordsmanship, Zoro forced himself not to yell an insult back. He would just end this in one attack to humiliate Buggy and scare his crew into standing down.

"I'll show you defiance," Zoro muttered under his breath as he crouched slightly, muscles tensing in preparation for his signature attack. Exploding into motion forward towards the still smirking clown, the swordsman cut straight through him with the combination of diagonal and horizontal slashes. Landing smoothly on the other side of the eviscerated Buggy and sheathing his swords, he frowned in disappointment as the pirate captain fell to literal pieces. He had hoped for more of a fight than that. " **Oni Giri**."

"What a waste of time, that's the strongest guy in your entire crew?" Zoro sighed as he looked around at the assembled pirates. What a bunch of weirdos. Even now as their captain bled to death on the ground, they were still smirking and w-

 _Wait a second,_ Zoro thought hesitantly, _there isn't any blood on my blades. Why isn't there an-_

The puzzled line of thought was swiftly cut off by the gloved hand wrapping itself tightly around his windpipe and the knife plunging into his back.

"Did you really think it would be that easy?" Buggy called out from behind him, and as Zoro's head was slowly forced to turn around by the hand on his throat his eyes nearly bugged out in disbelief.

"What the hell is this?"

The clown's body was still chopped up into the separate pieces that his previous attack had cut him into, but there wasn't a single wound or drop of blood. Instead, the detached body parts of what should have been a dead man just gently floated through the air and reattached themselves to Buggy's form as though nothing had ever happened with the exception of the hand around Zoro's throat and the one digging the knife further into the green haired man's back. As the pirate crew cheered and watched on with anticipation, Buggy casually swaggered over to the restrained pirate hunter with a hearty chuckle.

"The Chop-Chop Fruit," Buggy's smile became steadily more unhinged as he approached Zoro. "That's the name of the Devil Fruit I ate." Separating his body parts at random momentarily to show off, the pirate continued, "You could never kill me or even hurt me with a sword! I'm a splitting man!"

 _All of my hard work and training and I'll never be able to even hurt him,_ Zoro thought to himself in disgust, _all because he got lucky and ate a fruit that counters me?_

"I think it's time that we make another flashy example to warn everybody of just what will happen when somebody messes with the Buggy Pirates," Buggy declared to the delight of the still cheering pirates behind him. "It seems what we did to that Mayor the other day just wasn't enough, with you and that stupid girl both having the guts to defy us. So maybe taking the head of the infamous Pirate Hunter Zoro will make it clear!"

Turning to his crew, the large group of men chanted all at once, "DON'T MESS WITH THE BUGGY PIRATES!"

"I think it's time we load up the Buggy Cannon, what do you think boys?" Buggy cackled at his men while motioning for a few of them to wheel it forwards. As the weapon was loaded with a truly massive cannonball with the emblem of the Buggy Pirates painted on the side, the pirate captain began to taunt Zoro once more. "Well unfortunately your journey to become the best sword guy in the world ends here, in a flashy bang. I'm a kind and generous man though! So if you have any last words, you can say them to us now!"

"If you don't get off of my First Mate right now, beg for your life, and leave, I'm going to break every bone in your body."

"No, no! Wait your turn, you can say your final words next once we're finished with him," Buggy scolded the newly arrived Luffy with a waggle of his finger before turning back to the silent Zoro. "No need to act all tough, this is your final chance to… WAIT WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?" the clown finally realized just who he had spoken to and whirled around with bulging eyes.

* * *

Luffy still felt like shit.

After days of no sleep, rest, or much food, a few hours of shut-eye hadn't been anywhere near enough to get him back up to 100 percent again. That wasn't to say it didn't help, because not hallucinating most things as large pieces of meat was a definite upside to getting some rest, but still it wasn't the same as getting fully rested or refilling his belly with a good meal.

So when the bounty hunter had been disturbed from what he easily considered to be one of the top five naps of his entire life by the raucous sounds of fighting, yelling, and laughter from directly outside of his window, he had been understandably upset.

"Wasn't this place a damn ghost town when we arrived, or did I imagine that?" Luffy asked the sky rhetorically as he quickly pulled on his shirt and prepared to storm downstairs and beat whoever was being so loud unconscious.

The sky, rather predictably, did not answer.

"Beat up whoever is being so loud, get some food, back to sleep," Luffy grunted to himself as he wearily made his way down the single flight of stairs and towards the front door. It was a pretty good list, in his opinion. Short, simple, to the point, nothing could go wrong!

That notion lasted about four seconds as the white haired man made his way over to the door, kicked it open, and took in the scene in front of him. A bunch of circus rejects were standing around a truly large cannon and chanting something about bugs while a flamboyantly dressed clown detached his limbs and danced around holding Zoro by the neck.

Taking a deep breath, Luffy stepped back inside and closed the door.

 _I guess I needed way more sleep than that if I'm still hallucinating like this,_ Luffy mentally groaned and rubbed his eyes. Counting to three, he opened the door once again and froze as the exact same hallucination from just moments ago continued right in front of him. The pirates were now loading a stupidly large cannonball into the stupidly large cannon as the clown continued manhandling Zoro.

"Well unfortunately your journey to become the best sword guy in the world ends here, in a flashy bang. I'm a kind and generous man though! So if you have any last words, you can say them to us now!"

Luffy's vision went red and the world slowed down to a crawl. This wasn't a hallucination, this was someone daring to lay a finger on one of his crew members. One of _his_ people. His mouth was open and speaking before the thought even fully registered, forgoing the potential element of surprise. "If you don't get off of my First Mate right now, beg for your life, and leave, I'm going to break every bone in your body."

To Luffy's shock, the clown completely ignored the threat, just turning and wagging a finger in his direction as though scolding an unruly child. "No, no! Wait your turn, you can say your final words next once we're finished with him," the man replied, speaking to Zoro once more before spinning back 180 degrees in terror to stare directly at Luffy again. "WAIT WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?"

 _Nevermind Zoro isn't in any real danger,_ Luffy deadpanned at the idiotic response from the clown, _this guy is even more stupid than I can be sometimes._

"I'm his captain," Luffy gestured to Zoro, "and a bounty hunter. You heard me. Let him go, beg me not to beat you senseless, and leave. I'm not in the mood to deal with small fry like you right now. I'm tired, hungry, don't like clowns, and in just a generally grumpy mood."

"H-hey! You don't get to talk to me like that," Buggy pointed an accusing finger at the white haired man in outrage. "I'm the great Captain Buggy! I beat your First Mate here without taking a single hit! I won't let you take me lightly!"

Rather than dignify any of Buggy's bluster with an actual response, Luffy just raised an eyebrow at Zoro questioningly. "You didn't even manage to touch him?"

"Tch," Zoro scoffed back in disgust at the query. "He just got lucky. His stupid Devil Fruit makes it impossible to cut him with a blade and he got me with a sneak attack after I thought I had already won. I beat both of their crew's officers and their pet lion all at once in a three on one. They're all pretty weak if I'm b- GAH."

"Shut it, you!" The dismissive review of the Buggy Pirates' fighting abilities was interrupted by their captain removing the knife from Zoro's back and jamming it roughly back into the same area. Veins popping on his forehead, Buggy shook the swordsman roughly. "I could beat you even without my Devil Fruit powers! Beating Cabaji, Mohji, and Richie must have been some kinda flashy fluke!"

The previously tense atmosphere in the street morphed into a downright oppressive one almost instantly. A chill ran up the collective spines of the Buggy Pirates as their attention was dragged back over to the sickly looking newcomer who appeared to be the origin of the feeling of danger. Despite the paler than usual skin, bloodshot eyes, and slightly swaying posture from the leftover effects of sleep deprivation, Luffy was suddenly without question the most dangerous individual in the entire town. It was like coming face to face with a wild animal who could sense your wounds, smell your blood, and knew you would be easy prey.

"I take it back," Luffy's calm voice somehow managed to seem infinitely more threatening than any amount of screaming or rage. "I think I _am_ in the mood to stomp some ants now.

"Is that supposed to scare me? Some no name like you, threatening a famous pirate captain like me?" Buggy blustered in an attempt to save face with his crew watching, but it was useless. Everybody could see his knees shaking hard enough that they knocked together.

 _This presence is unreal,_ Buggy thought to himself with mounting dread as he dropped Zoro to the side in order to face the new threat, _it's almost like I'm back on the Grand Line with Roger again! I left that sea and came here to keep_ away _from monsters like this, damnit!_

"Ah, I didn't introduce myself yet," Luffy offhandedly commented. "How rude of me. My name is Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm going to be the strongest man alive one day. You just stabbed my First Mate."

 _The will of D,_ Buggy felt like he could puke as his mind drew comparisons between this unassuming kid and a younger Gol D. Roger back when they had first sailed the Grand Line. "Oh damn."

"Yeah, something like that," Luffy mildly agreed.

Before the unfortunate pirate captain had time to fully lament his foolish actions, Luffy's body exploded into motion faster than some of Buggy's crew could even see as he rocketed towards the clown and his fist made impact with the tip of that iconic red ball nose.

Calling it a punch was somewhat similar to labeling a hurricane as some stormy weather. Just the shockwave of the initial impact was strong enough to shatter the glass windows in the building behind Buggy. The poor clown's face seemed to crumple in on itself around the clenched fist for a moment, a few teeth shattering in the process before the laws of physics caught up and sent him flying backwards through a house and crashing into the one behind it.

There had been buggy balls fired in the past that caused less devastation.

"Now that big nose is taken care of, is there anybody else who would like to try and attack either one of us?" Luffy grinned widely, unintentionally mimicking Buggy's earlier pose as he held both arms out to either side in a mocking way.

"Wh-who're you… callin' big nothe," Buggy slurred through his broken teeth as some of the rubble slowly shifted itself up and off of the pile he had initially been buried under. Standing up to his feet only through sheer tenacity and habitual rage at the hated nickname, the clown began to walk back towards the silently impressed Luffy with teetering steps.

"Well that's a ten out of ten for tenacity at least," Luffy whistled at the amount of willpower it must be taking the pirate captain to force his battered body into motion. Sure, he was swaying around like he was making his way through gale force winds, but he was at least standing. That punch had enough force to practically level a building thanks to his Devil Fruit abilities. Suddenly, an errant thought struck the bounty hunter like a lightning bolt. "Oh wow, this must be what gramps feels like when he knocks me around. No wonder he likes doing it so much!"

"You f-flashy… bastard…" Buggy panted with exertion, feebly brandishing one of his knives in Luffy's direction. "Won't get away with… this."

"I already have," Luffy reached out with one hand and flicked the pirate in the forehead rather gently, snickering as the 'attack' unbalanced the clown and sent him to the ground again. "Shishishishi! Now, for the rest of you!"

The collective Buggy Pirates all avoided any eye contact with the pale monster in front of them and made sure not to make any sudden moves to provoke him. This guy had just taken out the strongest pirate of their entire crew with one punch and a flick. Nobody wanted to be the first to grab his attention.

"Which one of you is the navigator?" Luffy picked some wax out of his ear with a pinkie and frowned at the continued silence. "Is somebody going to step forward or do I need to start punching until I get an answer?"

Panicking at the idea of having to actually fight against the white haired man, the group started shuffling back and forth as they shoved a silently sobbing man up to the front and out of the relative safety of the pack.

"Traitors!" the man cried out at the rest of his crew. Turning towards the man who had trounced them so easily, the navigator swallowed heavily at the less than amused expression on his face.

"You're the navigator then? Ah, what's your name?" Luffy cocked his head to the side.

"Genpo," the man squeaked out past his terror.

"Alright Gando, here's how this is going to go. We," Luffy gestured to Zoro and himself, "need to get to Gecko Island. Unfortunately I'm still so sleep deprived that I'm pretty sure I'll be passing out for a long time very soon, and Zoro is quite possibly the most direction challenged moron I've ever had the pleasure of meeting."

"You wanna say that to my face?" Zoro yelled as he suddenly managed to ignore his wounds and charge his captain with a vicious headbutt.

" _You're a direction challenged moron_!" Luffy yelled back for emphasis, pushing back against Zoro's head as sparks and miniature lightning bolts flashed between the two of them.

The watching pirates' jaws dropped as they watched the duo suddenly at each other's throats. What a weird pair, concerned for each other at one moment and then in the very next fighting like this.

"Sorry! As I was saying," Luffy turned back to Genpo with a glare at Zoro to shut up for the moment, "I need to sleep for probably close to a day and if Zoro is in charge of navigation we'll both get lost at sea and die pitiful deaths. We can't really stay here since I just know Buggy is going to be stupid enough to try and get back up at some point to try and get me back, so that's where you come in!"

"Oh please god no," Genpo whimpered pitifully as he realized what was about to happen. "I don't deserve this."

"You are now being drafted in as a temporary member of our crew!" Luffy finished with a bright smile and thumbs up in the shaking pirate's direction. "It's only temporary until we can find someone who isn't super weak like you, so don't worry about being stuck with us forever Gunple! Shishishishi!"

"You're getting my name even more wrong every single time you say it," dramatic tears streamed down poor Genpo's face. "How is that even possible?"

"So just as a warning, if you try and betray us while out at sea until we find your replacement you're gonna get hurt real bad!" Luffy brushed past the man's question as though he hadn't even heard it. "You saw what I did to your boss, and the clown said something about Zoro beating three of your strongest guys all at once. So don't mess with us, and we won't have to mess you up. Got it?"

"Y-yes Captain Luffy," Genpo stammered out and did a sloppy salute.

"Shishishi! See that Zoro? That's called respecting your captain," Luffy broke out laughing at the terrified pirate and nudged his swordsman in the side. "Well Gopen, welcome to the…"

"You alright, Luffy?" Zoro raised an eyebrow as Luffy trailed off and a look of horror painted itself across his face.

" _I never thought of a good name for our crew_!" Luffy shrieked in disgust at his own idiocy, running around in circles having a minor panic attack. "Ten years of planning for setting out to sea, gathering a crew, and becoming strongest in the world and I forgot to pick a name for us! Names are so important to making a cool first impression!"

Both Zoro and Genpo just looked at each other slowly, meeting each other's gaze despairingly. _This_ was their captain. The one they would be following, even if it was only temporary in Genpo's case, and who was essentially in charge of their well being.

 _We're going to die,_ the two thought in unison.

* * *

The short remainder of their stay in Orange Town was rather mundane in comparison to all of the earlier excitement. Without Buggy, Cabaji, or Mohji to order the rest of the rank and file crew members not to, the Buggy Pirates just gave Luffy and Zoro everything they asked for. Food supplies were replenished, clean drinking water was barreled up and stored on their boat, and all of their treasure was turned over.

"It was actually just yesterday," one of the pirates had quickly explained to them after Luffy had noticed just how little money the Buggy Pirates actually had. "This damn orange haired witch duped the captain with some story about coming to join the crew before robbing us blind after a party when most of the men were still passed out drunk. Larry was still conscious enough to chase her down to the harbor as she left town and _says_ that he managed to shoot her in the side or something as she sailed away, but we don't really know."

"Shishishi! She seems pretty clever," Luffy grinned at this unknown girl's guts to steal from an entire pirate crew by herself. "Maybe she'll want to join us if we can find her out there!"

"Yeah, yeah, maybe," Zoro grunted disinterestedly as he lifted the final box of pilfered food into their boat. Now that they were fully stocked up for the journey ahead, it was time to head out towards Gecko Island. "I'm more interested in why we're not tying up Buggy and bringing him with us. We're bounty hunters, that means turning in bounties."

Luffy's face turned sour very quickly at the reminder of their unfortunate luck. "We can't contain him without a proper ship or at least seastone cuffs thanks to his Devil Fruit powers. Just rope isn't good enough since I'm assuming he can just split himself into pieces around it and reform free from any knots we tie. Goonpa seems pretty harmless to have around since we _need_ a navigator, but having to constantly watch our backs the entire way to Loguetown's Marine Outpost just isn't worth it for a 15,000,000 berry bounty. I don't think I'd have any problem beating his ass over and over until we got there, but you wouldn't be able to with his particular Devil Fruit. I'm not going to be able to stay awake at all times to watch him, we know how sleep deprivation ended last time."

"Yeah, okay," Zoro quickly agreed with the fair assessment nodding his head rapidly. Dealing with Luffy on a normal day could be aggravating enough, there was no need to deliberately make that worse by denying his captain sleep. "We heading out now then?"

"Yeah, time for some more adventure!" Luffy pumped his arm high up into the air as all three of them made their way into the boat and untied from the harbor's dock.

As they left Orange Town, the entirety of the Buggy Pirates minus Buggy, Mohji, and Cabaji came down to the dock to shout farewells and wave goodbye to Genpo with tears in their eyes.

"We'll miss you Genpo!"

"Try not to die!"

"How are we gonna sail without you there to direct us?"

Biting his lip to hold the tears in his eyes from spilling at the heartfelt display of camaraderie, Genpo prepared himself to shout out a potentially final farewell to his beloved comrades.

"I'll never f-"

"Yeah good for you, who cares about whatever you're talking about?" Luffy loudly interrupted with a yawn, stretching himself out along the deck. "Start navigating already, Goober! We need to get to Gecko Island and I need a nap really badly!"

Eyes bugging out at the casual dismissal of what was going to be a moving speech about friendship and bonds between brothers, Genpo realized that during the time Luffy had been speaking they had passed out of hearing range of the docks. There was no way for any of the Buggy Pirates to hear him anymore.

"MY NAME IS GENPO YOU IDIOT! HOW DO YOU KEEP GETTING IT SO WRONG?"

"Shishishishi!"

* * *

 **A/N: Genpo will NOT be an important character. I probably won't even really flesh him out. He's just going to be there for a little comedy relief and a Deus Ex Machina for getting Luffy and Zoro to Gecko Island without Nami to navigate. I have no plans to add any OCs to the actual crew, that always seems to get messy very quickly.**

 **I'm not super pleased with this chapter and can't really tell if it shows. The Devil Fruit explanation seemed forced and leaving Orange Town seems too rushed. Might go back and edit them another time. I tried to get myself to type out a full battle for Luffy and Buggy, but I honestly couldn't make myself do it. Luffy beat Buggy really easily in canon, and my Luffy in this story is much stronger. Once we get into the Grand Line where fights can actually be challenging through unique Devil Fruit powers or Haki, I'll be able to do actual fight scenes for him but for now in East Blue (with a couple exceptions I have planned) it's going to be rather simple. I know Luffy probably seems too overpowered but I swear it's going to change. There are some weaknesses to his powers that he hasn't realized yet, and Haki is going to be a massive game changer. He's a little bit like a complacent Logia user right now, and we all know what happens to them when they first get surprised with that particular ability.**

 **Finally, I know that the 'mysterious' Goa Incident probably won't be terribly hard to guess for some of you despite not being a canon event. However it's going to be a rather key part of Luffy's backstory and any potential future change from bounty hunter to pirate if I choose to go down that route.**

 **As usual feel free to review and let me know what you think. I appreciate any feedback positive or negative as long as it's not a pointless flame like "Your story is crap and Luffy is out of character."**


	4. East Blue: Syrup Village

V For Vectors

 **Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or To Aru Majutsu No Index. Nothing you recognize from any other works of fiction belong to me in any way, shape, or form. I am not profiting off of this story in any way and write for fun only.**

 **A/N: Sorry, I know this one took a while longer than the first 3 chapters thus far. I got hooked on Dead by Daylight's Hallowed Blight seasonal event and basically did nothing but grind it for those dope skins and go to work for a few weeks. Should be back to business as usual now though!**

 **East Blue: Gecko Island**

* * *

"Are we there yet?" Luffy whined in a bored tone, sprawled out on the deck of their boat staring straight up at the tranquil skies.

"Not yet, Captain Luffy," Genpo jumped to attention, sweating profusely.

"You know you don't have to do that every time he asks, right?" Zoro drawled without even looking in the navigator's direction. "He's been doing it for hours now, the moron is probably just asking because it makes you panic like that."

"Shishishi! Don't spoil my fun Zoro, he's so scared of us!" Luffy snickered as Genpo just held the position until he dismissed him a few moments later. "If you hadn't stopped playing I Spy with me I wouldn't be so bored! There's nothing to do."

"Luffy all you ever did was pick the ocean or clouds because there's nothing else in sight," Zoro sighed in exasperation. "It's not fun at all."

"Well then unless you have a better idea of how to occupy our time, I'll keep asking if we're there yet," Luffy crossed his arms mulishly.

"It's like having to deal with a bratty little kid," Zoro rubbed the bridge of nose in exasperation. A bored Luffy was always a terrible thing to deal with, and Zoro ended up with a headache more often than not while trying to occupy him.

"Shishishi! Are we there yet?" Luffy just laughed in response.

"No." Zoro bit out through gritted teeth.

"Are we there yet?"

"No!"

"Are we there yet?"

"No, we're not there yet damnit!"

"..."

"..."

"Are we-"

" _Fine we can play I Spy again you insufferable moron!_ " Zoro finally snapped and punched Luffy in the side of the head to try and shut him up, veins pulsing on his forehead.

"Hooray!" Luffy pumped a hand in the air in what would have been a far more victorious manner if he didn't now have a black eye and a goose egg growing on top of his head. "Do you wanna go first, or can I?"

"You can go first," the swordsman snarled, fingers twitching in the direction of his blade. Just one quick swing, that's all it would take. If he was quick enough, maybe he could get some peace and quiet.

"I spy…" Luffy put a hand on his chin, looking in all directions for inspiration as though there were more than a few options. "Something blue!"

"Is it the ocean?" Zoro guessed in a voice cold enough to freeze a lesser man's blood. Like Genpo, who was fruitlessly attempting to back away from the green haired man further than the boat's size would allow.

"Wha-?" Luffy's eyes bugged out in shock as though this exact same question and answer hadn't been repeated dozens of times in the past day. "Are you some kind of mind reading wizard?!"

"I'm in Hell." Zoro groaned flatly, smacking his head into the mast over and over. "I was executed back in Shells Town, and the Devil is punishing me with an eternity in Hell dealing with you."

"Hey, he doesn't look so good. Do you think something is wrong with him, Goomba?" Luffy idly picked some wax from his ear with a pinkie as he turned to the navigator.

"Please don't kill us," Genpo completely ignored his 'captain' for the first time as he pleaded with a Zoro that looked mere moments away from snapping. Luffy _did_ have a point somewhat, the sporadic twitching that the green haired man was currently doing didn't seem natural at all. Neither were the numerous pulsing veins. Or the tics.

Luckily for the dismayed navigator and Luffy's health, the distraction of an island appearing out in the distance near the horizon prevented the incoming rampage.

"Look, that's probably Gecko Island!" Luffy excitedly cheered, bouncing up and down on the spot. "Gumbo, bring us in!"

"That's still not the right name," Genpo whimpered dejectedly, tiny storm clouds appearing over his head. Nevertheless, he obeyed the order and aimed the boat in the direction of the small beach that was just barely coming into view. "Hopefully there's a navigator on this rock and I can be free from them…"

"What was that?"

"N-nothing Captain Luffy!"

* * *

Gecko Island was… rather peaceful at a first glance. Luffy was not a fan.

"Man, I keep ending up on boring little holiday resort looking islands," the bounty hunter in question pouted as the trio finished dragging their boat up onto the beach and took a moment to look around before heading up the incline to a trail that would hopefully lead to the nearest village. "When are we going to get some excitement? Make land on an island and immediately fight a dragon! Or a giant! Or some real pirates that aren't pushovers!"

"Easy for a monster with a Devil Fruit like you to say," Genpo gaped in disbelief at his 'captain's' definition of fun and exciting. What kind of insane idiot wanted to fight dragons?

"Nah, he has a pretty good point," Zoro sighed in a bored manner, hands behind his head as he walked. "What's the point of having it easy all the time? You'll never get stronger that way. We both have a long way to go if we want to reach our respective goals."

"So you're just gonna go out of your way to find monsters to fight? Won't that be dangerous for your other crew members, _like me_?" Genpo finished with a shriek.

"Why would we ever get weak cowards like you on the crew?" Luffy snickered in response. "You're just our temporary navigator for now, but we'll replace you soon hopefully! Then we can build a super strong crew with nothing but people who want to fight and can hold their own."

"I'm not that awful, am I?" Genpo sobbed dramatically as the mini rain clouds reappeared.

"It's not your fault that you're kinda pathetic," Zoro tried to console him with what could maybe be interpreted as a kind smile. "You just joined up with those Buggy Pirates and surrounding yourself with weak people made you content with being mediocre. You can just go back to them once we find your replacement though, so that you look even kinda strong by comparison again!"

"Shishishi! That's the spirit, Zoro!" Luffy cheered along, pumping a fist in the air. "Let's find some strong people and kick their butts!"

"W-w-well maybe we could help with that," a shaky voice from behind the group cut into the conversation. "With finding some strong people to fight?"

Spinning around to face the source of the voice, the trio came face to face with two rather odd looking people. The first was a rather tan looking teenager with bushy black hair, a rather slim physique, and a long pointed nose that drew attention rather easily. The second was a scowling young woman with orange hair, an odd looking tattoo on her arm, and bandages wrapped around her waist.

"My town has been taken over by p-p-pirates," the male continued quickly, stuttering even worse at the threatening pose Zoro had taken upon being snuck up on. "I-if you're looking for strong people to fight, maybe we c-can help each other? Also I think she needs some help," he trailed off with a gesture in the direction of the wounded woman.

"I don't need any help," said woman just scowled and crossed her arms over each other in an unimpressed manner, but her wince as she shifted exposed the pain she was in. "I just want to get back my berries from those damn pirates and be on my way!"

"Do the pirates have a name, and what kind of bounty does their captain have?" Luffy raised an eyebrow skeptically at the pair. Fighting pirates could be fun, but the caliber of the East Blue crews he had faced so far had not been impressive. "I don't really want to waste time fighting some common bandits if the Marines could handle them."

"W-well one time as I was busy fighting off over one thousand pirates all by myself to protect the town, I think I heard one of them calling him Captain Kuro," the long nosed man lied. "Does that help at all?"

"No," Zoro flatly responded with an unimpressed glare. " And nobody is going to believe such a ridiculous lie as someone like you fighting off thousands of pirates."

"Bwah! He saw right through my perfectly crafted lie!" Usopp struck a dramatic pose with a horrified face.

Zoro's uncontrollable twitching returned in a flash and his hand crept towards the hilt of one of his blades as the over-the-top idiocy gave him traumatic flashbacks to endless games of I Spy with Luffy on their way here.

"Hey, you guys haven't introduced yourselves yet!" Genpo quickly cut into the conversation and switched the topic as he spotted the danger and incoming violence. "My name is Genpo, this is Roronoa Zoro, and this is Captain Luffy! How about you two?"

"Well, my name is Usopp, but you can call me Usopp the Great like everybody else around these parts!" the long nosed man seemed to brighten up again instantly at the chance to talk about himself, pulling a slingshot out from behind his back and holding it up proudly. "My slingshot skills are far greater than your average pistol user. If those pirates hadn't caught me off guard, I would have easily taken them all out before one of them even stepped foot on shore!"

"Usopp the Great, huh? That's pretty neat, even if your weapon is lame," Luffy grinned widely at the liar who deflated at the insult.

"It's not lame at all! I'm not lying when I said I'm more accurate than most pistols with this," Usopp yelled back, pulling a few pellets out of nowhere and firing off three of them one after another at a tree roughly 15 meters away. Impressively enough, all of the pellets managed to strike the exact same spot.

"Huh, I guess it's not useless after all then," Luffy rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "That was a little bit cool!"

"How about you, Miss Silent?" Zoro cut in with a glance at the orange haired girl who still hadn't spoken other than to refuse help.

"Tch, my name is Nami," she scowled around at the three newcomers with poorly concealed derision before pointing an accusatory finger at Luffy. "You called him Captain, right? You're just some more damn pirates, aren't you? Even if you could beat the ones currently in control of Syrup Village you'd probably just take their place!"

"Shishishi! Not quite," Luffy burst out laughing again at the accusation before his eyes hardened slightly. Pointing one finger up to the sky, a soft smile spread across his face as he continued. "I'm a bounty hunter, not a pirate. I'm going to build a strong crew of friends, sail the Grand Line, and become the strongest man in the entire world! I made a promise, and I intend to keep it!"

Both Usopp and Nami were completely taken aback by the sudden passion in this stranger's voice as he spoke about the future of his goal as if it were a certainty and not a nigh impossible dream.

"I…" Nami opened her mouth to say something in response but was suddenly cut off by a gaping Genpo pointing his finger in her direction.

"Wait just one second! Nami, orange hair, lots of berries, and I'm guessing that's a bullet wound under those bandages! You're that damn thief that stole almost all of our berries back in Orange Town!" Genpo's eyes bugged out of his head and his jaw dropped comedically as his mind finally managed to connect the dots laid out in front of him. Reaching behind him to pull out a small knife from its location tucked into his pants, the former Buggy Pirate waved it in the thief's direction. "Give it back, or I'm gonna s- **ghurk**!"

Luffy's fist planted itself so deeply into his stomach that Genpo nearly bent in half.

"Genpo, maybe I didn't make myself clear back in Orange Town," Luffy calmly spoke down to the wheezing man as he collapsed to the ground. "You are not a Buggy Pirate right now. I don't care what you do once we let you go, but until we _do_ let you leave you are a member of _my_ crew. So put the knife away, shut up, and let the big boys and girls talk."

 _I think I prefer when he's messing around and calling me stupid joke names,_ Genpo distantly thought to himself as he continued struggling to breathe and nod his head frantically. _Acting so ridiculous all the time almost made me forget that he took down Captain Buggy with a single punch._

It was now Nami and Usopp's turn to look on with gaping mouths and wide eyes as this bizarre bounty hunter casually knocked down one of his supposed crewmates with less effort than an average person would spend swatting away a pesky fly. Sharing a nervous glance with each other, both of them non-verbally communicated the same thing: _Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all_.

"W-why stand up for me like that against your own crewmate? He's right, you know. I did steal from the Buggy Pirates back in Orange Town before escaping." Nami nervously asked, internally berating herself for not even bothering to see what kind of people they were before accusing them of something like that.

"Shishishi! Glimpo isn't really a crew member of ours," Luffy's mood abruptly changed back to the more carefree manner from before as he turned back to Nami. "He's just temporary until we can find ourselves a real navigator to take his place. Zoro is as dumb as they come with directions and I can't be awake all the time to keep us on the right track and not get lost at sea. So I conscripted this weakling from the Buggy Pirates for now after we kicked their asses."

"I'm not as dumb as they come," Zoro grumbled under his breath but was promptly ignored by everybody else around him.

"If you need an experienced navigator, I can do it for you. I'll be charging you 1,000,000 berries per day with interest though!" Nami grinned greedily with shining eyes before the rest of Luffy's statement sunk in. "Hold up, you guys beat the Buggy Pirates?" Nami's mouth was once again hanging wide open, albeit for a different reason this time. "Just the two of you? How? There were at least dozens of them when I was still there in Orange Town!"

"Well Zoro beat up those two officers and their pet lion all at the same time while I was enjoying a nap," Luffy put a hand on his chin as he recalled their quick jaunt through the previous town. "Then when Buggy cheated and caught him off guard, it woke me up. So I came outside and knocked the crap out of him. The rest of the weaklings knew better than to mess with us after that, so we stole Gimli here and set sail."

"You make beating him sound so casual! They could have killed me!" Nami yelled at the aloof bounty hunter while gesturing wildly to her bandaged side.

"Well it was pretty casual," Luffy responded in confusion while turning slightly to look at Zoro. "The only reason those officers could fight Zoro was because it was three against one, and I beat Buggy with just one punch."

"O-one punch…" Nami gasped weakly as her world was turned upside down on its axis by this pale boy. The only reason she had been able to get away with robbing the Buggy Pirates was the massive party and trickery, and even then she had still almost failed. The bullet wound in her side was an unpleasant testament to that fact. Now this stranger was claiming that he had demolished a pirate worth an entire 15,000,000 berries! That was practically a fifth of her debt to Arlong in just one easy haul, and he mentioned it with the same type of nonchalance as some stormy weather.

"I can't speak for the majority of the pirates since I haven't seen them fight, but they all seem pretty scared of the Captain," Usopp finally managed to choke out an answer to Luffy's earlier question in the following silence. "That means he's probably going to be a good fight and pretty strong if that's what you're looking for. N-not as strong as me, of course! Why, I'm known as the strongest warrior of the sea in all of the East Blue! But I'm gracious enough to let you handle these pirates for me so that you can get some practice in, if you want."

Giving Usopp another unimpressed look at the ridiculous lies he seemed to spout every other sentence, Zoro crossed his arms. "Look, why don't the two of you just explain to us everything that has happened with the pirates, how many of them there are, and how you want us to help. Then we can decide on what to do."

The entire group, sans Genpo who was still crumpled over on the ground, nodded their assent to the idea and focused their attention on Usopp who cleared his throat.

"Alright, so this is what happened…"

* * *

 _This place kinda reminds me of Foosha Village,_ Luffy hummed thoughtfully to himself as he strolled through the main path of Syrup Village. _The same peaceful aura, the same sense of tranquility, the same type of unworried inhabitants._

It was rather amusing to the bounty hunter that none of the civilians lazily meandering through the square had any clue that their town was essentially being held at a knife's edge by the nearby Black Cat pirates. Even if they turned out to be weak, Luffy had to at least give their captain some credit for the sheer audacity of his plan. Hypnotising a rich heiress into signing over her entire fortune to him after hiding undercover as a butler for years wasn't something he would see coming in a million years. Long-con planning like that had never been his forte, he was far more of a straight forward fighter. It was fortunate that Usopp had managed to overhear as much as he did, without the additional information they may have never even realized something fishy was going on.

"How hard can it be to find a big mansion?" Luffy questioned the air rhetorically, scratching the side of his head in confusion. "I'm not Zoro, I shouldn't be lost like this."

After Usopp had explained the current situation that Syrup Village found itself in, an incredibly simple plan had been quickly formulated in order to take down the separated pirates in one decisive attack.

* * *

" _So to summarize, none of the villagers know about the pirates because the majority are hiding away from town on their ship near one of the beaches," Zoro repeated back a brief version of Usopp's long winded story to make sure none of them were missing anything important buried in the constant lies and exaggerations. "Captain Kuro and one or two of the pirates are currently holed up in Kaya's mansion in town, holding her hostage because for some reason they either can't or haven't succeeded in hypnotizing her. Am I missing anything crucial?"_

" _No, that's about it," Usopp gulped nervously at the hungry grin spreading its way across the swordsman's face. These new guys were absolutely crazy, treating this current situation like a game._

 _Zoro and Luffy turned towards each other with completely straight faces, sharing an unspoken conversation for a few moments before taking combat stances. Both held one hand out in the direction of the other before shouting out in unison._

" _Rock! Paper! Scissors! Shoot!"_

" _..."_

" _..."_

" _Shishishi! I win!" Luffy jumped up into the air with a cheer, wide grin splitting his face. "I get to go to the mansion and fight the captain, you're stuck dealing with the grunts on the beach Zoro!"_

" _Damnit, I hate this game," Zoro growled under his breath with a heavy scowl. "It makes no sense. Rock should just crush everything."_

" _Too bad, so sad," Luffy stuck his tongue out at his crewmate childishly. "You can take these three with you, I'm not going to need them. Ya never know what kind of tricks all those pirates might have or how many there are."_

" _Yeah, yeah," Zoro waved his captain off irritably. "Quit rubbing it in. We'll be fine, I can pick up their slack."_

" _Whoa, whoa, whoa," Nami suddenly interjected, frowning heavily as she looked back and forth between the two. "Who said I was going to come fight at all? I'm only here because I had to abandon my boat and run when the pirates saw me. I would have left already if they didn't have all of my treasure. I don't live here, I'm not involved in this situation right now other than taking back my money once it's over."_

 _Luffy just stared at her for a long time, leaving Nami oddly ashamed at the disappointed look in those red eyes. Despite not knowing this man at all, he had this odd aura around him that seemed to make her want to be better than she was._

" _Yeah, I guess. We can't force you to fight for the defenseless civilians in this village if you really don't want to," Luffy flatly responded with a scoff. "Is money really the only thing you care about?"_

" _I… look who the hell do you think you are to judge me?" Nami bristled at the accusation and dodged the question. These bounty hunters would never be able to understand the horrible position she was in attempting to save everybody in her village from Arlong's reign of terror. "You're just some damn bounty hunter trying to make money off of criminals just like me!"_

" _Nah, I don't think we're anything alike," Luffy shot her assumption down with a shake of his head. "I don't do this for money and neither does Zoro. Both of us just want to fight strong people and get stronger in the process so we can chase our dreams. Bounty hunting is just a good way to accomplish that. Look, if it will get you to help, you can have any bounty money we might make off of taking down the pirates and their captain."_

" _Absolutely!" Nami's eyes bizarrely managed to transform into the berry symbol, defying all logic and reason. Her previous indignation disappeared in a flash at the prospect of extra money on top of what she had already stolen from the Buggy Pirates, and she sloppily saluted to Zoro in a mocking manner. "I'll be right behind you all the way!"_

" _...Uh huh," Zoro eventually sighed, headache already forming at the prospect of having to fight alongside the three stooges against most likely a bunch of weaklings. "This is going to be so annoying…"_

" _Then it's settled!" Luffy grinned, already walking off in the direction of where Usopp had pointed for the town. "I'll meet up with you all at the beach after I finish dealing with Kuro and saving Kaya at the mansion. Good luck!"_

" _W-we won't need luck with the Mighty Usopp here," the long nosed liar shouted with false confidence that was undercut by his knees shaking hard enough to know together._

" _Shishishi! Whatever you say," Luffy chuckled under his breath as he walked off. He had a 'princess' to save._

* * *

"Ah! There it is!" Luffy happily exclaimed as an opulent home easily three times the size of any others he had seen slowly came into view ahead of him on the outskirts of the town and dragged him out of his thoughts. It was a beautiful two story Victorian building surrounded on all sides by a relatively low fence and an impressively decorated set of gates. "Man, it's gonna be a real pity if I have to wreck this place, huh?"

Whistling a jaunty tune to himself as he strolled up towards the gates without a care in the world, a frown crossed his face and he paused at the lack of any visible response from inside of the manor. The distinct lack of any type of reaction was eerily reminiscent of the pathetic lack of security back at the Marine Base in Shells Town.

"Ah, what's with all these bad guys and not having any security or guards around their operations," he mused under his breath. Reaching out with one foot, the bounty hunter nudged the gate open slowly without any kind of resistance and walked inside. "Not even a lock, huh?"

The inside of the home was just as lavish and gaudy as the grounds and outside as Luffy entered through the front door into the entrance hall, glancing around curiously. Extravagantly decorated pillars, expensive looking artwork hanging on every other wall, gold inlay on the window frames, and polished marble floors stretched through the entirety of the room and further into the building.

"Ah, I guess this is pretty nice," Luffy sheepishly admitted to himself, picturing himself settling down and living with such money that something like this became casual. He would never actually do it, but the mental image was really cool. Dragging himself out of the daydream with a quick shake of his head, the bounty hunter took another look around the room while trying to guess where the pirates and Kaya could possibly be hidden. "Man, this is going to take a while to search every room if I'm not lucky…"

"Hey, you!" a surprised voice came from down the hall, prompting a grin from the white haired man.

"Great! This is going to take much less time than I thought," Luffy happily walked over towards the newly arrived pirate who was brandishing a flintlock pistol in his direction. "Do you happen to know where your captain and Miss Kaya are at the moment? I have business with them!"

Rather than answer his rather reasonable question, the pirate instead chose to fire the pistol as he approached. Causally tilting his head to the right and dodging the incredibly predictable attack, Luffy just sighed.

Then he charged.

Less than 5 seconds later, the poor fool unlucky enough to run into him was barely holding onto consciousness after having his head smashed down into the marble floor hard enough to dent the rock. Luffy crouched down into a squat before the trembling man, appraising him in a manner not unlike a shark looking at its next meal. The wicked grin with far too many teeth helped cement this idea.

"Now, let's try this again, shall we...?"

* * *

"Damn, there's just no end to these insects, is there?" Zoro panted with exertion as he did his best to straighten up and fall back into his usual Santoryu fighting stance. Despite the average member of these pirates being rather weak, there were a _lot_ of them. It felt like every time he took one down, another two popped up to take their place while that freaky disco hypnotist in the back used his voodoo to help the injured one get back into the fight. "Maybe it wasn't the best idea to just attack them head on like we did…"

"WE TOLD YOU THAT, IDIOT!" Usopp shrieked from his place higher up on the path leading up the hill. Tears were streaming down his face in terror as he fought, but surprisingly enough the cowardly teen was still managing to be effective. The majority of his projectiles he fired managed to get another one of the pirates in a critical spot, making up for their non-lethal nature. An eye here, a crotch there, knocking pistols out of hands, it was an impressive display of marksmanship that had managed to slowly start building some respect from Zoro. "WAIT, DID NAMI ABANDON US?"

Zoro just grit his teeth in anger as the cat burglar's name was mentioned, repelling yet another pirate in a blinding flurry of his blades. Nami had seemingly disappeared just a minute or so into the current chaos, leaving both him and Usopp with one less person to watch their backs. Even Genpo hadn't been that bad, stating from the very beginning that he wouldn't be fighting. They had quickly realized that having Usopp in the thick of things was a foolish idea, and the marksman had backed up the hill with Zoro guarding the thinnest point of the path and preventing any of the pirates from reaching the long ranged combatant. Still, it wasn't enough. Thanks to the hypnotist healing their wounded, Zoro and Usopp were only able to hold the current stalemate rather than end the battle.

"Uhyahahya! Just give up already, you can't stop the Black Cat Pirates," Jango slowly moonwalked around in circles from the very rear of the fight at the relative safety of the ship, punctuating every few words with another dance move. "You should have known it's bad luck to cross our path, baby!"

"Stop dancing and come fight like a man, damnit!" Zoro roared back with a vein pulsing on his forehead as he danced around a pirate's clumsy swings and dispatched him with a backhanded swipe. A bead of sweat dripped down into his eyes and he blinked it away furiously as a pellet came from behind him and smacked into the nose of another pirate who was attempting to take advantage of the momentary lapse in concentration.

"Not a chance, Uhyahahya! I'd rather just stay over here and keep on dancing, baby!" Jango laughed uproariously at the idea of him coming and fighting the terrifying swordsman himself.

"Tch, what a coward," Zoro muttered darkly to himself as he tuned out the obnoxious man once more and lost himself back in the deadly flow of battle.

Swing, block, stab, dodge, block, dodge, swing. On and on it went, each strike getting just a millimeter closer than the last as the swordsman's stamina began to waver and his reaction times slowed. Finally, just as one of the pirate's cutlasses managed to lick out and score a bloody trail along the length of his arm, Zoro had enough and decided for a change in tactics.

"To think I would be forced to use something like this on weaklings like you all," Zoro scoffed to himself as he angled his next attack straight down and forced up a massive cloud of dirt between him and the Black Cats enveloping both groups.

"Gah, what a dirty trick! Blinding us!"

"Where is he? Is he running away?"

"AAAHH, that's me you idiot!"

As the gentle breeze finally lifted away the curtain of dust and dirt, Zoro could be seen a meter back from his original position. The swordsman was scowling heavily as he adopted an unfamiliar pose, both arms widely outstretched and all three of his blades pointing slightly up. Blood slowly dripped down to the ground from his elbow as all of his muscles tensed in preparation for his next move, winding up.

"You should feel honored, I was initially going to save this move for a much stronger opponent," the green haired man growled out around Wado Ichimonji. "I guess it can't be helped, there are just too many of you and that hypnotist is cheating to keep you in the fight."

Exploding into motion with enough force to blow back the surrounding dirt in a circle, Zoro whipped his three swords around in a circle hard enough to displace the air and form a twister. The apparition of a dragon appeared behind him, roaring out in defiance as Zoro tore forward and enveloped the stunned pirates inside of the miniature tornado of wind blades. " **Tatsu Maki**."

Usopp watched in stunned silence from behind as the man-made natural disaster tore through the ranks of the Black Cats with ease, sucking each and every member that got close enough into it and spitting them out a few moments later covered in sword wounds. It took only a few moments to demolish the majority of the pirates, leaving only a few of the hardier members standing at the end when it dissipated just as quick as it had appeared.

"Weaklings," Zoro scoffed once again as he slowly sheathed his swords once again with a soft click. As the few remaining Black Cats flinched away from him in fear and fell to their knees at being so easily beaten by a single attack, the swordsman just ignored them and walked directly towards a now trembling Jango.

" _Wait why didn't you use that in the very beginning of the fight?_ " Usopp shrieked in rage at the bounty hunter's back, still shaking from the adrenaline coursing through his system. "I thought we were going to die!"

"There's no honor in just throwing out your strongest abilities at those who are below you," Zoro looked back over his shoulder at the marksman while explaining. "If this creepy disco guy hadn't been forcing them to ignore their wounds and keep fighting through hypnotism, I wouldn't have needed it."

"No honor…" Usopp murmured to himself thoughtfully. That sounded like something a brave warrior of the sea would say.

Abruptly, a triumphant Nami popped up out of the Black Cat Pirates' ship hefting a large sack over her shoulder and humming happily to herself. Sparing a single glance towards the hopeless last stand those two idiots Zoro and Usopp were currently locking themselves in, the cat burglar decid-

 _Wait,_ Nami froze on the spot as her brain caught up with her eyes, _what happened to all of the pirates?_

Taking a longer look at the former battlefield, her eyes bugged out at the heaps of collapsed pirates who all looked like they had been on the losing side of a fight with a wrecking ball. The green haired swordsman was mostly unharmed other than the occasional small nick and one longer cut on his arm while Usopp appeared totally uninjured. Then she noticed that both Usopp and Zoro were staring at her. Then that they both had hands on their respective weapons. Both with the same undiluted rage in their eyes.

"Shit."

"You ran away and left us to die," Usopp pointed a shaking finger in her direction, voice cracking as the stress of the fight caught up to him.

"W-well you didn't die, so it's not really-" Nami began before being cut off.

" _You had no way of knowing that,_ " Usopp screamed at her with clenched fists. " _You just tried to use us as a distraction to get those stupid berries!_ "

"I… but…" Nami helplessly stammered as she tried to search for a more gentle way of rephrasing what she had done to the both of them. He wasn't really incorrect, she _had_ assumed that they wouldn't be able to win the fight.

She was not successful.

"Figures," Usopp spat derisively in her direction. "Luffy was right, all you care about is money. I shouldn't have helped you when you arrived here."

"Hey, calm down, we don't have to let her get away with it," Zoro consoled the sniper with a conspiratorial grin. Turning back towards Nami, the swordsman thought for a few moments on how best to get back at the cat burglar for her actions before reaching the most obvious conclusion. "We're going to be taking that treasure now."

"NOT A CHANCE IN HELL!" Nami's response was immediate and fiery as she adopted a clearly practiced stance, pulling out a bo staff from behind her back. With all of the money she had accumulated on this latest trip in addition to what Luffy had promised, her deal with Arlong was almost complete. She would finally be able to buy Cocoyashi Village back from those Fishmen and keep everybody safe. "You'll take this money over my dead body!"

Zoro's already low opinion of the thief actually managed to drop even lower at the declaration, looking back at Usopp again in disbelief. "You would fight to the death for that money, but not to help us?"

"You don't understand," Nami began panicking as Zoro's hands fell down to the hilts of his blades. She was so damn close to buying her village's freedom, she let anybody or anything stop her now. "I need this money! You can't take it!"

"I think I understand this current situation just fine," the swordsman mildly disagreed as he approached the burglar, rolling his shoulders slightly to stretch. "I just beat all of these pirates in a single attack, and you're just one woman with a wooden bo staff. No matter how good you might be with that, I can just cut through it. So, if you think you can take me, come!"

If looks could kill, Zoro would have been an incredibly dead man given the intensity of how Nami glared at him. Her teeth ground together hard enough that it was a miracle none of them cracked, and to the thief's shame there were tears prickling in the corners of her eyes.

 _No! I refuse to break down like this and cry in front of some complete strangers,_ she viciously swore to herself internally, _I am stronger than this! I've survived this long stuck under the rule of a vicious tyrant, a little bit longer won't be enough to finish me. I can always just steal it back in the future, along with their boat for good measure._

After taking a deep breath to calm herself, Nami looked back up at Zoro with the hateful glare only slightly diminished. "Fine, take the damn berries. I can just get more another time." With that said, she picked up the large bag full of stolen treasure and cradled it in front of her as though it was a newborn baby.

Grinning triumphantly at the 'victory' over the witch who had tried to stab them in the back so easily, Zoro strode forward across the small distance remaining between the two and grabbed the bag.

It didn't budge.

"Uh… are you going to let go?" Zoro sweatdropped as the question prompted a whimper from the woman in front of him.

"But he's so perfect," Nami didn't move or relinquish her grip, staring at the riches like a starving man would stare at a meal.

"He? Uh, right…" Zoro continued waiting patiently for the thief to let go, now incredibly uncomfortable with her berry obsession.

"Fine! Take him!"

"You, you still haven't let go…"

As Nami finally allowed Zoro to take the money off of her hands, the swordsman's eyes shot wide open in surprise as the unexpected weight caught him off guard and nearly sent him crashing to the floor.

"Damn woman, how in the hell do you carry something this heavy so easily?" he huffed in exertion, slowly swinging the bag up over his shoulder to help with the heavy load.

"I would carry the world on my back for enough berries," she shot back with a face so serious that it actually managed to convince Zoro she wasn't bluffing.

"Jeez, you really need to get your priorities straight," Zoro muttered to himself, now more weirded out than angry. "I didn't even think it was _possible_ to be this obsessed with money."

"So now what do we do?" Usopp questioned hesitantly, looking around at the various incapacitated pirates and the still trembling Jango. "Just wait for Luffy to get back from beating up Klahadore? Or should we head up to the mansion and see if Kaya is alright?"

"Who exactly is going to be beating me up, you miserable little brat?" a cold voice suddenly cut across the beach from behind the small group, dragging everybody's attention to a smartly dressed man standing at the foot of the cliffs. Slicked back black hair, wire frame glasses, and a smart suit would have given the perfect impression of a butler if not for the murderous look in his eyes and the numerous long blades extending from a set of gloves he wore. Pushing up his glasses with the palm of one hand, he continued, "I suppose Jango was right about one thing after all. I _shouldn't_ have allowed you to live after overhearing our plans. I shall simply have to correct that error right now."

"C-captain Kuro!" Jango choked out, confusing the three others with the sheer terror on his face. Shouldn't the dance obsessed man be happy that his captain had now arrived for reinforcements? "We, uhm, we were just… uh-"

"Shut up Jango," Kuro snarled back, showing absolutely no concern for either the state of his crew or second in command. "You've all failed me, and I'll deal with you in just a moment after these pests." Returning his attention to Nami, Usopp, and Zoro, the man surveyed the three much like a set of particularly unpleasant bugs buzzing around his head. "I don't know who you two newcomers are, but you have made a grave mistake in joining with the liar to interfere here. I cannot allow either of you to escape this island alive, but please don't take it personally."

"Don't take me so lightly, you're just a single man," Zoro boldly declared, dropping the heavy sack of treasure and walking towards the pirate captain. Taking Wado Ichimonji from its scabbard and placing it in his mouth, he then drew both other katanas and fell into his familiar Santoryu stance. "Your crew had nothing going for it but sheer numbers and hypnosis to ignore injuries, and you've been hiding out and living easy for years now. I'll happily take those odds in a one on one fight."

Kuro just sneered at the response, clearly unimpressed with swordsman. "So what if you beat them, I don't even truly need any of them other than Jango. Truth be told, they have outlived their usefulness and cannot be allowed to link Klahadore the butler to Kuro of a Hundred Plans. Nobody will be leaving this place alive but me and Jango."

"Captain…" Jango seemed to be at a loss for words in the face of the cold blooded declaration. Hadn't they all loyally served Captain Kuro for these many years? None of his men deserved to die for simply knowing his true identity.

"Do you wish to die as well, Jango?" Kuro asked the pirate who shamefully shook his head in response. No matter how much he may have protested, there was nothing he could do against the formerly infamous pirate. "Then be silent and don't interrupt again."

"I won't allow you to kill anybody!" Zoro drew the pirate's attention once more as he took a step forward, pointing one katana menacingly at him. "Enough talk, I will be your opponent."

Swaying side to side on the spot for a few moments, Kuro's head hung forward shadowing his eyes and leaving only a wicked smirk showing. "Not for long."

Then the pirate captain disappeared.

The battlefield lapsed into almost complete stillness at Kuro's disappearance, the only movement being some wispy clouds of dirt kicked up by the vanishing act. As the silence and lack of action began to stretch on, Zoro relaxed slightly with a disappointed sigh.

"Did he run away instead of fighting me after all that talk?" Zoro questioned uncertainly, looking around in case he somehow missed something. Turning back towards the battered and bruised Black Cat pirates who were just now managing to struggle their way up to their feet, the swordsman's eyes shot wide open and he fell back a step as one pirate's chest was suddenly slashed wide open without warning or any visual indication of an attack. "What the hell?" Zoro swore under his breath as the strange phenomenon repeated itself and another pirate fell to the ground screaming.

The previously serene beach was quickly filled with the screams of the wounded and dying as Kuro continued his relentless attack. The fact that he was exclusively harming his own crew seemed entirely irrelevant as the Black Cat pirates' cries for mercy were ignored.

"So what do you think of my ultimate technique Shakushi, Roronoa Zoro?!" Kuro flickered back into view standing atop the cat figurehead of the Bezan Black with a sickening smile. The former pirate captain had both arms spread out wide as though trying to display a great work of art. "I can move and strike so quickly that you can't even perceive my attack, much less defend against it! Admittedly I can't really tell who I'm attacking during it, but that doesn't matter when I'm surrounded by trash anyways. This is the power of a true pirate captain!"

"How low can you get, attacking your own comrades like that?" the swordsman growled back, disgusted by the appalling level of dishonor being shown off. "Slaughtering them after they had already been beaten by me…"

"They've failed me too many times to be left alive," Kuro continued with a laugh as though the idea of having any kind of decency was a joke. "Once you, the thief, and that little lying brat are taken care of, they're the only loose end left in my perfect escape from this life of an outlaw or servitude!"

"Shishishi! Don't get too far ahead of yourself now, I'd rather you didn't try to kill my first mate," Luffy called out from the top of the cliffs overlooking the beach, unintentionally replicating Kuro's entrance to a degree. Despite the laughter and generally nonthreatening words, none of the amusement reached his eyes which remained deadly cold. "Nobody touches one of my people"

"Captain…" Zoro seemed speechless at the possessive declaration before abruptly swearing and sheathing his blades. "Damn, I don't get to fight him if you're here thanks to that stupid game earlier. Couldn't you have waited just a bit longer? What happened to you rescuing Kaya?"

"Relax, I already took care of that, this fight is mine!" Luffy waved away the swordsman's concerns with a shrug before hopping off of the cliff and taking the quickest route down to join them on the beach.

"S-so cool!" Usopp cried out with stars in his eyes as the bounty hunter fluidly landed in a crouch with one fist on the ground, the other hand resting on one leg, and his head hanging forward towards the ground. "It's like some kind of superhero landing! Is this what a true brave captain of the sea is like?"

Gritting his teeth in frustration at the now seemingly constant interruptions to his perfectly crafted and implemented plan, Kuro rolled his eyes at the teen's question. " _Brave warrior of the sea_ , what a joke! He's just another interruption that I'll need to squash like a bug."

Upon hearing Kuro's instant dismissal of him, Luffy began to laugh. It wasn't his normal amused 'shishishi' chuckling, but a genuine deep laughter that had him clutching his sides and stumbling slightly from the force of his guffawing. "Ah, I appreciate that! It's been too long since I laughed that hard Klahadork. Squash me like a bug. That's a good one!"

With each second that the mocking laughter continued, Kuro's face steadily grew more and more red as tic marks appeared at random. Hands twitching, the perceived disrespect eventually became too much as he fell back into his Shakushi stance with a scream. "How dare you! I'll show you the difference between a notorious pirate captain like myself and some no-name kid like yourself!"

"You're no pirate captain," Luffy disagreed without losing his smile as Kuro vanished into thin air once again. "You're not fit to be a pirate if just having a name on the sea can scare you into hiding like this. The day I lose to a coward like you, I'll give up on my dream of getting strong enough to take that hat from Shanks one day."

"Luffy look out!" Usopp cried out to the white haired man as Kuro blurred back into sight directly behind him with a deranged smile on his face.

"You think you can talk down to me? Take this!" the pirate yelled as he darted forward to deliver a spinning slash directly into the back of the motionless man. As the multiple katanas attached to each of his fingers flashed forward, Kuro was already planning the next few steps of his attack to shut the infuriating pest up.

Then Luffy whirled around and planted his fist into Kuro's face.

"Your 'ultimate attack' has too many unnecessary movements," Luffy calmly explained as the pirate was sent crashing back into the wall of the cliff with a pained grunt, "It makes you real easy to predict. I spent a few minutes watching before you all noticed me, I think I've got an understanding of how it works and when you reappear."

"You… you…" Kuro snarled breathlessly as he pulled himself out of the indentation his body had made in the cliff face. His previously neat appearance was now disheveled with small cuts littering his face and hair frizzing out of its slicked style. "You dare!"

"How many times are you going to ask me that?" Luffy frowned at how easily the supposedly notorious pirate lost his composure at the first sign of a competent opponent. "You're supposed to squash me like a bug, remember?"

"Don't get so cocky you little shit!" Kuro howled back, veins pulsing on his forehead. "I was just going easy on you to make this final fight of mine last a little longer! I'm only toying with you, do you understand that? Why are you even getting involved in this? You don't live in this village."

"Ah, I don't really know. I just like fighting strong people, I guess. Although you've been kinda disappointing so far Klambchop," Luffy scratched the back of his head with one hand sheepishly with a wide grin.

"How simple. And you're okay with that being the reason you die?" Kuro's eyes tightened at the nonchalant answer but held off on attacking just yet out of curiosity at why these strangers seemed so determined to get in his business.

"Are you even listening? I'm not gonna lose to someone like you who abandons the sea and treats his comrades like trash," Luffy sighed as the captain seemed to entirely miss his point and fly into a rage again. _I really need to find some more crew members and make it to the Grand Line already, the East Blue caliber of pirates is sad._

"I'm going to let you taste plenty of fear before I cut you up like sushi!" Kuro's eyes were wide and deranged as he blurred away with Shakushi again, mind incapable of comprehending his current situation. He had always been the one in control, always 10 steps ahead of the Marines, pirates, and civilians around him. But now this one boy was causing that invincible self-image to crumble. "I will destroy you!"

"Ah, probably not," Luffy disagreed again with a shake of his head as he managed to whip an arm out to the side and lock it around one of Kuro's as he sped past faster than most could follow. Using the pirate's considerable momentum against him, the bounty hunter flung the man forward over his shoulder and slammed his head down hard enough to sink into the bedrock underneath their feet. Looking down on the crater, Luffy popped his neck from side to side slowly. "Give it up Klahadoofus, it's over. I'm out of your league."

"He… he's manhandling Kuro like he's nothing more than a little kid," Nami was deadly pale and shaking as she watched on with bated breath. The only beatdowns she had ever seen that were this one sided was Arlong punishing some poor fool back in Cocoyashi for breaking one of his rules. "And I stabbed his first mate in the back!"

"Yeah, kick his ass!" Usopp cheered from the sidelines, jumping up and down in excitement like a little kid on their birthday. There was a beautiful sense of comeuppance in watching the 'butler' who had verbally abused him for so long get taken out like trash. Then he noticed Kuro was standing up again and that murderous gaze was solely focused on him. "Eep."

"I'm going to rip out your insides and play with them like a ball of yarn," Kuro promised viciously, pointing one hand in the village liar's direction. His glasses had been shattered beyond repair by the last blow and he was missing more than a few teeth, but to the pirate captain's credit he still managed to stumble back up to his feet and charge at Usopp. "I won't be looked down on by trash like you!"

Instinctively knowing that his reaction speed wasn't going to be enough to evade the furious pirate's attack, Usopp began closing his eyes and trying to turn away anyways before snapping them back open and standing his ground. _I don't want to be a coward anymore, the least I can do is face him head on like a brave warrior of the sea,_ the teen thought grimly to himself as his death approached.

Then Luffy arrived between the two of them as fast as a lightning bolt and twice as dangerous.

"When I say the fight is over..." the bounty hunter began in a frigid tone, cocking a fist back menacingly. " _Then it's over!_ "

"No! My perfect plan…" Kuro whispered weakly, flashes of his years spent meticulously planning and hiding flickering in front of his eyes as the hand rocketed towards his face with all the power of a cannonball. "Cannot be interrupte-"

Luffy's knuckles collided with Kuro's jaw, and the pirate had no more time to think before his body crumpled, his jawbone shattered, and the world went dark.

"Just stop talking already," Luffy sighed dismissively as the pirate captain went down for good, crouching down low over his collapsed form. "So now the question is…"

"What should I do with you?"

* * *

"Kaya! You're alright!"

Usopp's excited cheer dragged the rich heiress out of her deep thoughts and she couldn't help the soft smile that crossed her face as the long nosed teen sprinted towards the gates of her manor.

While Usopp charged ahead to greet his longtime friend and crush, Zoro and Luffy followed along behind him at a more sedate pace with the swordsman holding a large sack of treasure and the white haired bounty hunter dragging an unconscious Kuro behind him by the collar. Nami brought up the far rear of the group, sulking along in the back and alternating between glaring at Zoro's back with an intensity that could make an experienced warrior cower and sending longing glances towards the bag of money.

"Yes, I'm safe from that disgusting man now thanks to you all," Kaya gratefully pulled the long nosed teen into a hug before wincing and cradling one arm.

"Oh no! What happened to your arm?" Usopp gasped softly as he noticed the heiress' heavily bandaged right hand, face falling at the thought of her being hurt.

"Ah, well… Klahadore, er, I mean Kuro, bragged all about his plan after capturing me and thinking he had already won," Kaya stammered, softly rubbing the injured hand. "So when I heard that he was going to use that weird hypnotist guy to force me to sign over my fortune to him I sort of… brokemyownhandtostophim!"

After taking a moment to decipher the rushed jumble of words that Kaya had so quickly blurted out at the end, Usopp's jaw dropped and he stared at the girl in admiration. "Wow, that's so brave of you to defy him like that! I don't think that I could have done that."

"Oh, it was nothing," Kaya blushed and tried to wave off the praise before Zoro cut into the conversation.

"No, he's right," the swordsman gave the smaller girl an impressed once-over with his arms crossed and the bag of treasure dropped for now. "That takes a lot of willpower to do, especially for someone in a life threatening situation like yours."

"Shishishi! That's exactly what I told her when I first heard about the injury too!" Luffy smirked in the embarrassed girl's direction. "So, did you think about my offer at all? Or do you need some more time?"

"Huh? Offer? What's he talking about, Kaya?" Usopp asked in confusion, looking back and forth between the two of them rapidly. Kaya's brow furrowed as she fell into thought again while Luffy waited patiently, still smiling expectantly.

"I offered Kaya a place on my crew, if she wants it," the bounty hunter answered simply.

" _You did WHAT?_ " Usopp shrieked loudly enough to startle away a nearby flock of birds, almost falling over as his jaw dropped.

"I offered her a place on my crew," Luffy repeated for the teen, his smile growing even wider. "It takes a lot of guts to do what she did, and we spoke for a little while before I came over to the beach to see how you all were handling things. Kaya wants to become a doctor, which we're going to need eventually."

"Kaya… you can't possibly be considering this, can you?" Usopp's disbelieving gaze fell back on his crush, who didn't respond and still seemed lost in thought. Staring at the heiress for a few moments, the habitual liar took a deep breath and squared his chest before turning back to Luffy. "Then you'll be taking me too."

The white haired man tilted his head to the side like a dog and scrutinized the other teen for a few moments. "Why should I? I made the offer to Kaya, not you."

"Because I won't let her go alone, and I'll kick your ass if you try to stop me!" Usopp firmly responded, reaching behind him to pull out his trusty slingshot and hold it at his side.

"I beat Captain Kuro without breaking much of a sweat, do you really think you can beat me?" Luffy asked curiously, wondering at the rapid change of personality. _I wonder if he even realizes that this is the first time that he's managed to speak to me without lying or stuttering yet?_

"I…" Usopp finally seemed to falter and realize that he had threatened the powerful bounty hunter, who was now looking at him like a particularly fascinating piece of meat. The tiniest of shakes started to work their way into both legs before the teen forced himself to stop and hold his ground. "Maybe. Maybe I can't beat you, but I'll give it my best shot. And you won't be able to stop me from following after you guys if you still won't let me. I'll chase you to the end of the sea and beyond."

"Oh, Usopp…"

The softly spoken words drew the long nosed teen's attention out of his stare-down with Luffy and back to his not-so-secret crush, who was staring at him in shock.

"Ah! Uhm… well what I meant to say, uh…" Usopp panicked, eyes wide and frightened as he looked in all directions for some kind of distraction or out. "I just, you know, I'm a brave warrior of the sea! Staying trapped here on Gecko Island forever would be denying the world the chance to see how incredible I am!"

"Shishishi!" Luffy chuckled at the abrupt turnaround in Usopp's personality as he lapsed back into lies and false bravado. He had seen enough. "Sure, I guess you can join if you want. You've got a lot of heart too. Plus we could use a sniper!"

"You could?! Er, I mean, of course you could! Who wouldn't want Usopp the Great on their crew? I'll be the captain, and you'll all be my loyal crew!" Usopp struck a dramatic pose, one leg propped up on a barrel that had appeared out of nowhere. "The Usopp Pirates!"

"No. Talk nonsense like that again and I'll beat you senseless," Luffy flatly swore, cringing hard enough that it physically hurt.

"O-oh okay," Usopp deflated, barrel slowly fading away. "Well I can at least be first mate then, right?"

"No. Talk nonsense like that again and I'll beat you senseless," Zoro responded this time, copying Luffy's exact words and expression.

"My poor heart," Usopp sobbed, crocodile tears streaming down his face as he curled up into a ball on the ground. Then he popped up again like a jack-in-the-box, springing over to Kaya's side grinning like a lunatic. "So, we'll be going out to sea together then?"

"I'm sorry," Kaya gave her longtime friend a shaky smile, her voice much stronger than she currently felt. "I'm not going to be coming with you guys."

"Eh?! What do you mean you're not coming with us?" the teen scratched his head as though trying to figure out a difficult puzzle.

"How can that statement _possibly_ be interpreted in any other way?" Zoro deadpanned, glancing over at Usopp in exasperation.

"Going out to sea and having grand adventures has always been _your_ dream, not mine," the heiress explained apologetically. She turned back to Luffy momentarily and gave the bounty hunter a short bow. "I'm still planning on becoming a doctor and helping people, but I can't just leave my home like this. Thank you for your generous offer."

Usopp's throat jammed and his brain went numb as her words sunk in. "You… but… okay. I won't go either then."

"Don't you dare say that!" Kaya's voice trembled and her eyes watered as she glared at Usopp. "You've always dreamed about going out to sea and becoming a great warrior like your dad. I can't let you throw away that chance now that it's here just so you can stay around me. I won't forgive you for that."

"Kaya…" the long nosed teen's face was scrunched up as he bit his lip and fought against the tears welling up in his eyes.

"Hey, it's not like we'll never see each other again," Kaya tried to console her friend and put up a strong front. "I'll always be here to patch you up if you need it, and you'll be able to tell me all about your adventures when you come back."

"Y-yeah. Our adventures are going to be so crazy that they'll seem even more lie-like than lies!" Usopp boldly declared before pulling her into a long hug.

"I'm looking forward to it," Kaya agreed, smiling fondly.

"You're sure about this? I don't know when we'll be able to return to East Blue once we've made it to the Grand Line," Luffy warned her, but he could already see the answer in her eyes. She would not be joining them.

"Yes, I'm sure. I'm sorry that you'll need to find another doctor," Kaya apologized to the bounty hunter before a wide smile spread its way across her face. "I _may_ have another way to help you all, though."

"Oh? What do you have in mind?" Luffy stared back curiously.

"Well, you guys need a new boat, right?"

* * *

An hour later found the small group gathered around Kaya's private dock, staring in awe at a gorgeous caravel gently bobbing up and down in the swell of the ocean. Red and white striped sails patiently waited to be unfurled, a sheep's head figurehead proudly jutted out over the clear blue water, and a blank flag canvas rippled gently in the wind.

"She's beautiful," Luffy murmured in awe, slowly walking forward along the dock and running a hand softly along the hull. "This is for us?"

"Yes," Kaya responded easily. "This is the least that I can do for you all after saving my life and giving Usopp the chance to follow his dreams. Her name is Going Merry, it was custom designed for me when I was younger but I no longer have the time to sail her."

"It seems a little old-fashioned, doesn't it?" Nami questioned hesitantly.

"Perhaps so, but I designed it myself," Merry declared proudly. "The ship's frame and its triple mast sails are all part of a stern-centered control system. We have also prepared everything that's needed to set sail aboard the ship."

"Wow, thanks! That's really thankful of you guys," Luffy exclaimed happily, eyes squinting as he smiled widely.

"It's 'really _thoughtful_ ', idiot," Zoro had to turn away in embarrassment as his captain somehow managed to mess up the common phrase.

"Ah, who cares? They both know what I mean! Shishishi!" Luffy ignored the criticism with ease and boarded the caravel gleefully. "This is such a cool figurehead! I wonder if it will be comfortable to sit on while we're sailing?"

As Zoro and Usopp moved to follow Luffy onto the caravel and load up the hefty sack of treasure and the massive pack of supplies the long nosed teen had brought with him, Nami was left behind to watch on helplessly.

 _I still need that treasure, and I lost the dinghy from Orange Town,_ Nami's thoughts were racing around like like lightning as she internally panicked. _There's no way I'll be able to make anywhere near that many berries on the way back to Conami so this entire trip will be for nothing. Not to mention that without a boat I can't even leave this island._ Steeling herself for the inevitable argument that was sure to occur, she took a deep breath.

"Take me with you. At least just for now."

"Yeah, okay. Get on," Luffy agreed with a casual shrug.

"Because I ca- _wait what?!_ " Nami shrieked at the top of her lungs, jaw dropping to the floor. "You're supposed to be mad at me, why are you just agreeing without any difficulty?"

"Why are you upset about me agreeing?" Luffy tilted his head to the side, scratching at his chin thoughtfully. "Do you want me to hold a grudge instead? I could charge you 1,000,000 berries per day if you'd li-"

Before Luffy could even finished his sentence, Nami had somehow blurred across the distance separating them, boarded the ship, and slammed one hand across his mouth cutting off the rest of that statement. Shadows covered the thief's eyes ominously and miniature storm clouds crackled with thunder over their heads as she leaned forward slowly and got up in Luffy's face. An apparition of a demonic mask floated in the air just behind her head, leering over the bounty hunter.

"Don't. Ever. Suggest. That. Again."

"Aaaaaahhh! She's a monster in disguise! Zoro! Usopp! HELP ME!" Luffy panicked with tears streaming down his face, flailing around helplessly.

"We don't even want her on the crew! Why would we help you out?" Zoro roared back with a tic mark and vein popping out on his forehead. "Did you forget about her stabbing us in the back already?"

"Hey, whatever happened to that weird pirate guy you were all travelling with?" Usopp ignored the commotion to ask a question that had been bugging him for a few hours. "Aren't you worried about him at all?"

"Nah, think of Genpo kinda like a baby bird," Zoro drawled uninterestedly, relaxing back against a side rail on the deck. "We nurtured him and helped him grow over the past few days. Now he has to leave the nest and find his own way."

"In what world is how you two treated that poor guy nurturing?" Usopp's jaw dropped, backing up a few steps from the relaxed swordsman.

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Zoro mentally tuned out of the conversation, preparing himself for a nap.

"Pull up the anchor, let's set sail already!" Luffy called out gleefully from his new favorite spot sitting cross-legged up on the Going Merry's figurehead. "The Grand Line is waiting for us!"

"Aye aye, Captain!"

* * *

 **A/N: I know, Genpo was literally completely uninvolved with the fights and just kinda disappeared. I just don't care about him enough to do more with the character, especially since he's no longer in the story. I DID say he was an incredibly minor bit character that would only stay until Luffy had a proper navigator, which he has found in Nami for the moment.**

 **Same deal as last chapter if I'm being honest. I originally had an entirely different plan for Syrup Village that involved Kaya and Nami being far more important than how I wrote this, but then I realized it would likely be around 25,000 words for a single chapter set in an arc that I don't really care about that much. I'm going to be sticking to what I said in the beginning, East Blue and the very beginning parts of the Grand Line are going to be fairly quick, with most small fry fights done briefly or skipped to the aftermath of them. THIS WON'T CONTINUE FOREVER, but right now it's essentially just cannon fodder numbers being thrown at the crew until we're deeper into the Grand Line and away from the very beginning chapters. They're not terribly entertaining to read since it feels like everybody and their mother has written their own FF about those arcs and they're not super fun to write for me personally since I can't change too much yet without consequences like not picking up certain crew members or missing important plot points that I need for where I want to take this story in the future.**

 **I'm heavily considering a time-skip at the moment directly after Luffy and the others arrive in the Grand Line to near the end of the Alabasta Arc (definitely not going to skip Crocodile!) so that I can avoid having to write 5-6 chapters of just slightly rewritten canon material. I can't skip East Blue (for plot reasons that will become apparent in the next few chapters) but for Whiskey Peak, Little Garden, Drum Kingdom, and the beginning of Alabasta I don't have any major changes in mind and it would likely turn into just a tedious retelling of canon with different abilities for Luffy.**

 **I know myself and my patience fairly well, so having to force myself to write probably around 100,000 words on arcs that aren't terribly important (as far as where I want to take this story goes) has a decent chance of making me tired or bored of writing this and prompting me to abandon the story. It isn't a character trait I'm particularly proud of, but it's true. I started writing for fun, and even though I absolutely appreciate and love everybody on who reads and enjoys what I'm doing, I won't be able to write at a quality I feel comfortable publishing if I'm hating every minute of it. Feel 100% free to give me feedback on why you would/wouldn't like a timeskip like that, your opinions ARE important to me even if I end up doing it the way I have planned anyways.**


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